


Fathoms Below

by Red_Shadow_Wolf_19



Category: 1776 (1972), Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Anal Sex, Blood, Blow Jobs, Crossdressing, F/M, M/M, Manipulation, Past Abuse, Period-Typical Homophobia, Science Fiction, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-03
Updated: 2016-12-22
Packaged: 2018-09-06 06:04:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 20
Words: 35,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8737642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Red_Shadow_Wolf_19/pseuds/Red_Shadow_Wolf_19
Summary: Scientist Thomas Jefferson had been waiting his whole life to make a big discovery.  He had nearly lost hope.  But when he and his fellow scientists are brought to a small town by the sea to investigate and 'assist' a family, he finds what he has been searching for...
Inspired roughly by The Little Mermaid





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This idea came from art by jeffmadsrqandrp on tumblr (submitted to openmynded) and as well as art by magpiesarefluffy (submitted to exadorlion). More art will be mentioned as time goes on. For now, please enjoy. And remember to follow me on Tumblr at red-shadow-wolf-19

_ I'll tell you a tale of the bottomless blue/And it's hey to the starboard, heave ho/Look out, lad, a/mermaid be waiting for you/In mysterious fathoms below/From whence wayward Westerlies blow/Where Triton is king and his merpeople sing/In mysterious fathoms below _

 

Everyone in the town knew where she was.  Everyone knew where she had gone.  They had watched her silent daily pilgrimage with pity over these last few months.  The men would take off their caps as she passed and women would say a kind ‘good morning’, but as soon as they thought she was out of earshot they would whisper.

 

“Poor dear.  The last of her four children.  Two in the crib, one at sea, and that one…”

 

“Well Patsy’s lungs were never good, were they?  And she was so small…” 

 

Her Patsy had indeed been very small.  The doctor had placed the babe in Martha’s arms, saying dismissively, “If she lives the week, I would be shocked.”  And shockingly the little girl had lived another ten years.  It wasn’t enough. 

 

The little grave had been given a small hill to herself, looking out at the ocean that had taken Martha’s other child.  He had been a deckhand on a war vessel.  Well, in wars, people die.  Even deckhands.  The sea could was not at fault.  No more than air that could not get into Patsy’s body.

 

Martha Washington looked out at the ocean that was beside the town that she and her husband called home.  She had buried her first husband here.  She buried all of her children here.  Two of those children had played in that ocean, wriggled their small little toes in the wet sand, and had been warmed by the sun.  God had made that ocean.  God had given her children.  God had taken her children.  God had kept the ocean.

 

She knew it was selfish to be resentful of this fact.  But she had lost so much.  And never uttered a word of complaint.  But still... all she wanted...all she ever needed… had been a child.  George had floated the idea of an apprentice, as though a some upstart lad looking for a job, food, and roof and their head was supposed to satisfy this desire.  They were getting to a point in their lives where producing a child would be out of the realm of possibility.  And with Martha seriously doubted that if she conceived a child now that she or they would live beyond the birthing bed.  The only orphanage in the county was miles away, and she was not Catholic.  They would not her or her husband adopt.  

 

Surely a God who made the ocean and the air had little concern about something so trivial.  Especially when it came to children.  There were so many children in need of parents.  And she wanted just one…

 

Martha ignored the wind that had been to knock against her and tried to take her shawl.  She ignored the rain that began to soak her.  But she could not ignore George coming up the hill calling her name.  “Martha!  Martha!  Come now!  The storm is coming!  We have to get to the shelter!”  For one wild moment she thought about saying and facing it.   _ Maybe she would be with Patsy… _

 

She stood and turned to him.  “I just had to tell her about the garden,” she said, her voice nearly getting lost in the wind.  George nodded and sheltered her with his large body.  

 

The shelter was on higher ground than the village, though from storms of past, the small group of houses would still stand come morning light.  Even the Washington’s cliff side home built over a grotto would still stand.  The jagged near the port town coastline...would not be so lucky.

 

The village nearly all stood when George Washington entered the shelter, a was the town’s leading mapmaker and from one of the oldest families in the county.  But their eyes were only filled with pity at his little wife, as he brought her to a chair and sat her down gently.  Someone offered a blanket for her.  Someone offered her a mug of warmed ale.  Someone whispered about Patsy.

 

Someone  _ outside  _ screamed.  A child,  **outside the shelter** ,  _ screamed _ .

 

A few women looked helpless around and counted the children.  A few men looked around as well.  But no one made a move to assist.  No on but…

 

“You heard it.” Her voice was as quiet as it had been since Patsy’s last breath.  But it fought with the wind and conquered and battered the consciences of the people in the shelter.  Her voice rose.  “You heard it.  There is a child out there.”

 

“All the children are present and accounted for,” someone said, trying to cut her off. 

 

Another scream.

 

“There is a child out there!” she repeated, her voice now at an ordinary speaking volume, but her for her nearly screaming.  “You heard it!  You all heard it!  A child!  That you all seem content to let die.”

 

“Mrs. Washington,” it was the pastor speaking, looking very prim and respectable as stepped forward.  He gave her a sympathetic patronizing little smile.  “The grief has gotten to you my dear.  There is no child out there.  Just rain and wind and-”

 

The next scream made everyone jump.  They could all clearly hear a small child cry to the night in grief.  ‘ **MAMA!!!!!!** ’

 

“Someone needs to check!  There is a boy out there people!” George cried, looking at his neighbors for support.

 

No one went to check.  No one acknowledged it.  No one could look Martha or George Washington in the eye.

 

They were the first to leave the shelter when the storm was done, nearly running out hand in hand.  They searched the town, and came up with nothing but wet shoes.  They searched the hills nearby, and found only mud up to their knees for all their trouble.  

 

“C-can’t be,” George said, turning to the only other place.  “They wouldn’t be…”  But Martha had already gathered up her skirts and was walking down to the shore.

 

The beach was littered with boats that were not fully tied down and the normal sea debris that the ocean spewed up.  The woman had trouble navigating the rocks and sand in her boots but she continued on.  The sea was still lapping violently at the shore, as though it was trying to recover something it had lost during the storm.  Martha twisted every which way, calling for the child she had heard.  It couldn’t have been her mind!  Her mind was filled memories of Patsy in the garden.  Daniel receiving his uniform.  Francis and John’s small little gurgles.  They never screamed...they never cried…

 

“Mama…”

 

It was such a small voice.  So many had already ignored it.  It would have been simple to ignore it.  Convince one’s self  that you never heard it.  But Martha had heard it.  And she was not most.  It had come from a heap of washed up seaweed on the edge of the sea, just out of reach of the waves.  The mass had dragged with it crabs, driftwood, small pieces of coral, and…

 

“A child!” George had finally caught up to her, as she knelt and deconstructed the nest of green around the small boy.  He looked around ten, small for his age, with damp brown hair down to a bit past his small shoulders.  His mocha eyes looked absolutely terrified at the couple, trying to withdraw back into the seaweed.

 

“It’s alright,” Martha kept her voice light and small.  She held out her hands to show the boy there was nothing in them.  “It’s alright.  I’m here...I’m here to help.  It’s okay.  Can you tell me your name?  Where is your mama, Little One?  What’s your name?”  She remembered a lullaby that she once had sang.  It had been years ago, (What was it?  About five?) when Patsy had been so young and small much like this child.  It was song about the ocean.  About the waves.  About the winds.  About…

 

“Martha!” Her husband’s urgent whisper interrupted her.  He had continued to unwrap the boy from the seaweed as she had sang.  And he had finished untangling the boys feet…

 

Or what would have been his feet…

 

_ God had made the ocean, the air, and… _

 

“Alexander.” The mermaid’s voice was so small but suddenly filled with life.  “My name is Alexander Hamilton.”

  
_ And God gave them Alex... _


	2. CRYPTOZOOLOGISTS,  ANTHROPOLOGISTS, CHEMISTS, AND PRINTERS

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slight error in the last chapters notes. magpiesarefluffly's lovely art was not submitted to exadorlion, but instead reblogged by them.
> 
> Remember to follow along for Tumblr for more information, to ask questions, etc. red-shadow-wolf-19

_ Nine Years Later _

 

The sign was placed awkwardly beneath the large placard that read ‘EACKER LAUNDRY AND TAILOR SHOPPE’ and just above the one that said ‘BENEDICT ARNOLD QUALITY MEATS’.  The young man looked at the newspaper clipping he had kept with him through this week long journey.  He scrunched up his face and read the small thin sign again, so in contrast to the bold large print of the advertisement.

 

‘ **FRANKLIN, ADAMS, AND JEFFERSON: CRYPTOZOOLOGISTS,  ANTHROPOLOGISTS, CHEMISTS, AND PRINTERS.** ’

 

The young man put the clipping back into this pocket and entered the graying building.  To his left was the laundry, people rushing by with clean clothes and replacing them with dirty ones shouting for the hall to be clear.  To his right was the meat shop, giving off an enticing smells.  He hadn’t eaten today, too excited to finally get to his goal.  He walked further in.  Down the hall, past the empty stalls of business that could not compete in an indoor bazaar next to a meat seller and laundry.  Past a few homeless squatters who eyed him as went.  One chuckled when he saw where he was going.

 

The sign that announced the business was just as disappointing as the one outside.  The young man felt almost let down coming all this way.  He straightened his jacket (borrowed from his master) and knocked.  At first, there was no response.  The young man looked around, unsure if he should ask someone if this was still open.  Finally, a woman answered, attractive with a small wry smile. 

 

“May I help you?” she asked, her voice was sweet and apologetic as curse could be heard from behind her.

 

“Um,” the young man fumbled with his pocket and retrieved the newspaper clipping, “I’m looking for Dr. Franklin.  About the ad?”

 

“Do you have an appointment?” the woman asked.  A shout of pain.

 

He paled.  “I-I didn’t know I needed one…” 

 

She smiled sympathetically.  “It’s alright.  I’ll ask if they can fit you in today.”  She left for a moment.  He could hear the sound of cursing, shouting, a weird animal cry, and finally she was back in the doorway.  “Come in.  They are just finishing with someone ahead of you.”

 

He gulped and followed.  The room he entered was in desperate need of a wash rag, duster, and mop.  Everything was covered with a fine layer of dust and there was the distinct smell of mold.  But the dust did not hide what was in the room: strange skeletons of some chimera like creature, jars of preserved organisms, beakers and burners, every which way.  Maps of far off places and scale drawings of the fantastical beasts that lived there.  The young man eyes were drawn every which way and so transfixed by what he saw that the woman had to stop him from going further.  

 

“Wait your turn,” she whispered, pointing to far side of the room, where the only clean thing was kept.  At a long table with three men sitting and staring (well two were glaring) at another man standing who standing before them like a serf beseeching three kings.  

 

The standing man had a strange yellow and blue striped fish in a jar, holding it out for the three to see.  One of the men held his hand that looked slightly swollen, in front of him a blood red crab in a jar still snapping its pincers in displeasure.  “Dragged them from sea just like this!  Honest, on my mother’s grave I did!”

 

“Sir, I do not doubt you got them from the sea,” the man in the center said, rubbing his temples obviously straining to be polite.  He was the oldest of the three, small round spectacles on his round nose and his graying hair slightly balding.  His round belly nearly touched the table as he leaned forward toward the man, looking almost apologetic.

 

“I am almost positive you dragged this little devil up from hell,” the man with the sore hand said, looking distastefully at the crab in the jar.  He was a short man, even sitting down that was obvious, just reaching middle age but already with a few streaks of gray in his brown hair.  He looked like a man who could not conceive of a smile or amusement.  The youngest man at the table chuckled as he drew in a notebook, avoiding the glare that was sent his way by the other.

 

“As I was saying,” the oldest said, his voice being strict with his colleagues before softening, “I do not doubt these came from the ocean, but I highly doubt they are magical or, as you claim, sing.”

 

The man before the table looked insulted.  “I am telling you the truth!  They sang!  And how do you explain the coloring!  Never seen a fish like this in my life!”

 

The injured man sniffed dismissively.  “That, sir, is Epinephelinae or common grouper.  The coloring is what I can only assume is paint or dye.  Also common.  The crab,” he looked at the crustacean in the jar, “is not local, but indeed the coloring too is from paint.  Either you are pulling the wool over our eyes,” the man looked affronted, “or someone is doing the same to you.”  

 

The man looked ready to spit fire at the three of them, but settled on storming out with his grouper.  The crab he left, an insult to both injuries.

 

When the door, the trio sighed and slumped in their respective chairs looking exhausted.

 

“I swear to God above Franklin, if another charlton comes up you in a pub with ‘live samples’-”

 

“Oh, come now John!  He sounded legitimate for a while there.”

 

“Until it grabbed you,” the young man said with another dry chuckle.

 

The severe man twisted in his chair to glare at the younger (taller) one.  “Jefferson, the next time there someone with a specimen, I hope you are the one it chooses to bite!  It would give me immense satisfaction.”

 

The woman stepped forward and gave a small cough.  The men turned all at once to face her.  “You have another appointment.”  She motioned behind her to the young man who stood nervously.  He took off his hat and stepped closer, not knowing if he should bow or nod or shake each of their hands.  

 

The oldest looked at the young man like kindly uncle.  He took in the young one’s stocky build, even under the jacket that a few sizes too big.  His curly hair was tied back with a ribbon, revealing a near child’s face complete with freckles and an anxious smile.  “Come forward, lad, come forward!  My eyes are not as good as Tommy or Johnny’s over here!”

 

“Don’t let him fool you, boy,” ‘Johnny’ said dryly.  “Benjamin can see just as well as the day he was kicked out of Oxford.”

 

The young man chuckled shyly.  “I c-came from Providence-”

 

“Which Providence?” Benjamin Franklin asked, forgetting his manners for a moment.

 

“The-the one by the sea?”

 

“Off to good start.”

 

“To get bitten again.”

 

“Shut up both of you!  Let the boy speak!”  The old doctor turned kindly back to the one standing, “What’s your name?”

 

“John Laurens.  I’m apprenticed to George Washington and he sent me here to see if you would return with me to Providence.”

 

The three men in unison raised an eyebrow.

 

“Well,” Franklin looked around unsure to his fellows, “we um. We um…”

 

“We do not do field research on request,” Thomas Jefferson said smoothly.  “That costs money.  Money we do not have.  We would need lodging, food, travel-”

 

“That will be provided if you come!  My master, Mr. Washington, he and his wife,” the boy struggled with the wording of what to say, “they have something they would like to show you.  They want your help.   Their good people, and they just want...they just need…”  Jefferson watched Laurens fumble with his hat, looking like as though each word took so much effort.

 

“I’m sorry,” Franklin said, his voice deep with sympathy.  “But even if that was provided so generously, we are still not in a financial position to go to the seaside.  We are how do you say…”

 

“Struggling?  Underwater?  So far in debt that the fact we keep this place is a miracle?” John Adams provided, ‘helpfully’.

 

“Under a lot of pressure right now,” Franklin settled on.

 

Laurens looked around desperately.  “I came all this way...all this way…”

 

“If you had something more to offer,” Adams said, his voice going soft at the young man’s distress.

 

Suddenly, Laurens approached the table rapidly, reaching into his pocket.  Franklin dove under the desk in fear (his days of academia had told him young men approaching with hands in their pockets usually carried dueling pistols).  Adams took his up his cane, as though he could swat the young man away if need be.  Jefferson did not move; from his position he could clearly see what the young man was lifting for them from his pocket for them. 

 

_ Pearls _ .   _ Three pearls. _ _ Precious pink and white pearls.  _

 

Laurens yanked them so roughly from his pocket, but once they were in his hand he held them so delicately.  He placed them on the table and stood looking at the men expectantly.  “You and I know, sirs, that Providence is not known for clams that produce pearls.  And ain’t no place but Zephyr that produces pink pearls.”

 

Jefferson picked up one of the pearls, admiring its shape.  It looked like a..

 

“A teardrop,” Adams said as he admired one of the pink ones.

 

The young man nodded.  “It is.  It’s-”

 

_ “A mermaid’s tears…” _


	3. Oral Tradition

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember, I can be found on tumblr at red-shadow-wolf-19. Hope you are having a lovely day!

“The issue on the table,” he could hear the speaker over the din of the pub, the creak of the docks and the lapping of afternoon tide.  The speaker’s voice cut through the hubbub of the crowd, like a knife or a...a...the listener thought back to the bedtime stories and books he had been able to read.  There was a name for a very long knife, a special name.  It was on the tip of his tongue.  “The issue on the table,” the speaker repeated as people began to quiet.  The word could wait.  “The proposed tax increase for the county.  We shall now hear arguments for and against.”

 

Oh, the listener had been hoping they would discuss this today!  He had been researching (well as one can from day old newspapers and talking to only three or four people a day) and he had come to the conclusion that he was for the tax increase.  True, he did not pay taxes, he could barely be said to live ‘in’ the county, but from his mindset it would benefit the area immensely!  Better roads (was it roads or was it avenues?), welfare for the old, schools for (was it of?) orphans.  Who could object?  Why would they object?!

 

“If I may go first,” said the baker (or was the candlestick maker).  His voice was high and and sounded like the wind going through a small holes in the rock.  “This ‘tax’ or as I am sure we can all agree this ‘robbery’ is far too much for the humble business owner.  I live month to month, and offer to this simple town my baked goods.  This tax would only result in me closing my doors in Providence.  And this county.  Forever.”

 

The listener had to stuff his fist into his fist in his mouth from shouting up through the floorboards.  The tax was barely anything!  And it helped everyone!  The roads that brought the wheat or flower or whatever bread is made of (the listener had been told but he didn’t really care at the moment) were in badly need of repair (or so said the listener’s parents).  The baker would be able to bake twice as much...whatever it is he bakes.

 

There was noises of agreement, which angered the listener to no end.  If he could tell them!  If they could just see!  If...

 

“Mr. Washington!  Mr. Washington!”  Someone burst into the pub shouting at the top of their gills (No lungs!  Humans have lungs!).  

 

“What is it, lad?” asked the oh so familiar voice of George Washington.  He was just above the listener in the pub, his foot tapping a warning to stay silent.  It was hard for the listener sometimes, especially during evening tide he climb to his favorite spot under the pub on the docks; there was small crack in the floorboards and he could see almost clearly the interior.  Unfortunately, Washington did not like going to the pub in the evening and John wasn’t there to ‘escort’ him.

 

Speaking of.  “Mr. Laurens is coming up the road!  With the men from The City!” the boy said in one long breath.  

 

The listener gasped loudly, though it was covered by the scraping of chairs and Mr. Washington’s booming voice calling for his horse to be saddled.  The listener was already off their perch and racing against the over current and above the undertow.  He could easily beat them back home, he had needed rush.  But the listener had to speak to  _ someone _ .  Had to tell  _ them _ about the…

 

The cave was at the deepest part of the cliff side, when it deemed to appear at all.  It was covered by jet black seaweed and blood red coral, and the entrance was covered by a faded pink fabric.  The listener approached recklessly as always, shouting into the cave, “Ma’am!  Ma’am!  It’s like you said!  The men…”  The listener paused for a moment as three eels emerged from the cave, their eyes aglow as they stared at him, intertwining their bodies as they stared.  He looked into their glowing eyes undeterred.  “The men from the city!  They came!  Just like you said they would!  Papa is going to meet them on the road and bring them home!”

 

In unison, the eels laughed.  “Oh sweet child,” they purred, “why did you doubt me?  When the future speaks to me, it speaks true.”

 

“Will teach me how to read the future?”

 

“No.” The eels drew closer to the listener.  “But we will tell you the past.   _ Have we ever told you about the girl who wished for the ocean _ ?”

 

“That’s an old wives tale!” Adams looked at Franklin as though he had gone insane.  To be honest, he looked at the old man like that ten times a day and he was long since overdue.  Jefferson barely hid the smile at the two older men’s antics.  He had been sharing an office, a small flat, and ire of the academic community for the better part of four years and had come to view them as friends.  Bickering, bitter, bumbling friends.

 

Franklin pressed on regardless, more than encouraged with ‘Little John’s’ interest a the story.  “There was once a three sisters who lived by the sea with their rich father.  They had no brothers so their father doted on them, especially the oldest.  He would have given her the world on the string if he could.”

 

“Bad policy,” Adams said, settling back into the carriage with his arms crossed, “to spoil children.” Everyone else in the carriage sent the small man a glare, and he put his hands in the air in defense.

 

“Please keep going,” John said, his leaning forward eagerly.

 

“Well,” it was Jefferson said, taking up the story from Franklin, “this rich man found an old enchantress who promised to give the girls all they wanted on command.  Just a snap,” he snapped his fingers in a well practiced manner (this was not his first time hearing or telling this story).  “The two younger girls, they asked for small things.  Toys, flowers, songs.  What you expect from nursery stories.  But the oldest, she asked for gems and the finest silks and...I forget, what else did she ask for?”

 

“A sapphire whale, or something god awful like that,” Adams said reluctantly.

 

“She asked for a sapphire crown to rival that of the Spirit of the Ocean,” Franklin said, finally getting the limelight back onto him.  “The enchantress refused her, for that was against all the laws of magic.  The rich man begged and oldest daughter demanded.  But still the enchantress refused.  Finally the rich man asked, ‘is there nothing that could be done to give my daughter her request.’  The enchantress thought and implored the The Spirit.  

 

“The Spirit responded, ‘I shall fashion this girl a crown myself, if her father gives up his youngest daughter to me.’  The enchantress relaid this to the rich man and he amazingly-”

 

“Stupidly.”

 

“-agreed.  And the Spirit the man’s youngest and from her made the first the first mermaids.  And they wept for being betrayed and from their tears came the jewels that the crown was fashioned.  A crown that could control the weather.  And the oldest daughter was satisfied...for a time…”

 

“Then she asked for scepter, like the Spirit had,” Jefferson told the young man.  Once upon a time, he had been just entranced by this story.  Once upon a time, he actually thought….

 

“What happened?”

 

“It doesn’t matter what happened. Suffice to say the girl asked for too much-”

 

“The ocean,” Franklin clarified.

 

“And the Spirit got angry.  Standard fairy tale.  The end.”

 

“And that is how mermaids came to be?” John asked.

 

“Well no,” Franklin admitted, deflated slightly.  “You see, much like the whale is descended from a type of mammal possibly something related to the wolf family, we assume that merpeople are related to humans.  An ancestor that returned to the sea, evolving to be aquatic.  The pearl tears are simply a higher concentration of saline in the body than us  _ terra homo sapien _ .  The story though is proof of a different sort.”

 

“How so?”

 

“If someone took the time to make up stories about how mermaids came to be, there must logically be mermaids,” Adams now leaned forward, looking much like the professor he once had been, “Legends and tropes do not appear in a vacuum, my dear boy.  Surely you have heard a story similar to this before...before...before you were apprenticed to Mr. Washington?”

 

The young man nodded as the carriage came to a halt.  The cabbie could be heard talking to someone outside before the door to the carriage was yanked open.  An opposing looking man leaned in, still astride a horse.

 

“Mr. Washington!” John cried, smiling brightly at the man.

 

Mr. Washington smiled at the boy and looked around the carriage.  “Doctors Franklin and Adams?  Master Jefferson?”

 

“Yes!  And you must be the Mr. Washington who sent for us,” Franklin leaned out to take the large hand of the man.

 

“Please!  Call me George!  My house is just this way, on the cliff over that way,” he waved to the Northeast.  “Just a little further and I can promise you a hot meal and a bed.”

 

“And...um..the...specimen?” Adams asked, as delicately as possible.  They had been told by John to not bring up the m-e-r-m-a-i-d outside of the safety of the home of the Washingtons.  Not that the three men need be told why.  They had received their fair share of scorn from people when they said the word ‘mermaid’.  Jefferson still felt the scar from his father’s belt across his back when he had explained his choice in career.

 

Washington looked visibly uncomfortable.  He nodded.  “I’ll lead you.”  

 

As the door closed, Franklin turned back to his fellows.  “Well I have a good feeling about this.”

 

“You always have a ‘good feeling’ about these sort of missions,” Adams hissed.  “Remember Arendale.”

 

“A minor fluke,” the old doctor the words and the incident away.

 

“You do not believe, sirs?” John asked, a look of offence crossing his freckled face.

 

Jefferson laughed humorlessly.  “Do you know how many times we have been summoned to one place all around this county- no this COUNTRY- with the promise of a sighting or a living specimen.  And we arrive and it’s monkey sewed to the catch of the day or a fish painted-”

 

“But the pearls-”

 

“Could have come from a necklace of Mrs. Washington’s.  I mean there is fame and fortune to be had, even from three washed-up scientists.”  The scar ached so much right now.  “Three pearls off anything, for the greater chance of more riches.  Many would trade that in a heartbeat.”  He could hear his mother screaming...

 

“Thomas!” Franklin barked.

 

Thomas stopped.  Laurens looked red in the face, somewhere between tears and punching him.

 

“I’m NOT lying,” the young man hissed.  More vehemently, “The Washingtons are not lying.”  Almost as an afterthought he added sarcastically, “Sir.”

 

Many would be compelled to believe the boy by passion alone.  But Jefferson was in some aspects his father’s son.

 

_ At some point you have to grow out of wives tales.    
_


	4. Alex

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember to follow on tumblr at red-shadow-wolf-19. And do not be afraid to comment!

The Washingtons lived what had been once used as observation tower; built into the side of the cliff it would one day, centuries from now cave-in onto the grotto it had apparently been constructed over.  It looked a bit gloomy in Jefferson’s eyes, but then again he had grown up in the rolling hills of country and farmland.  His family had only ever been to the seaside in the summer during extended holidays, and they only had ever stayed the most luxurious of resorts.

 

Standing outside the home covered in vines and stone was an attractive older woman, her hair just now getting streaks of gray.  She wore simple clothes of rough spun and home knit shawl about her shoulders; she didn’t look the sort to have, need, or want pearls.   _ But looks could be deceiving. _

 

The moment the carriage was parked, John Laurens burst out, glad it seemed to be rid of the three doubting men.  He rushed over to the woman and gave her a warm hug in greeting.  She fussed over him in return as George reined up beside them.  He was off the horse in a near instant and went to help the men struggling with their luggage.  Well, Jefferson struggling with the luggage.  As the youngest, and the one without a doctorate to speak of, he was usually put in charge of manual labor such as moving things.  Four years ago, when he had first arrived at Franklin’s doorstep, he had been offended at insult of doing physical labor.  Now, it was as second nature as Adams’s sighs.

 

“Doctors Franklin and Adams.  Master Jefferson.  This is my wife, Martha Washington,” George said, taking up the largest of the trunks with ease and barely a grunt. 

 

“Enchanting to meet you Madam,” Franklin said, taking the woman’s hand in his with a little flirtatious gleam in his eye.  Theories about mermaids were not the only reason he was kicked out of academia.  The woman smiled back at the portly man, girlish giggle escaping her.

 

“It is wonderful to make your acquaintance,” Adams said, a shy smile as he took a the woman’s hand next.  John Adams was never one for charm, something he was all to hyper aware of.  How he had been able to gain and keep a wife was something only God knew.  Martha could sense the unease coming off him in waves and simply smiled contentedly back at him, trying to break through that wall of nerves.

 

Jefferson simply shook his hostess’s hand.  No need to pretend he had not already accused this woman of lying.  For her part, Martha simply thought the young man was too serious.  Too silent.  No matter.

 

“Would you like to set your things down and get some food in your bellies?” asked the woman, her voice soft and matronly.  “I was just in the process of making a crab stew.  And I have a few loaves of bread I made myself.”

 

“Actually, if you permit us,” Franklin’s voice still oozed charm, “We thought we could take a look at the specimen straight away.”

 

“Specimen?” she looked confused for a moment.  Jefferson nearly threw down the suitcase he had been carrying filled with scientific equipment in both triumph and defeat at her bafflement; another elaborate prank pulled on the three men.  They were so far into debt at this point that the trip back to the city would mean they would be without food or firewood for a month!  He was just about to scream, when the woman smiled brightly in realization, “Oh!  You mean Alex!  He is just as eager to meet you as well!”

 

They were ushered inside, a homey hovel with three cots set up beside a fireside, obviously set up for them.  They were lead away from the large kitchen table, already set up, and the stairs that must have led up to the family quarters.  They were lead to farthest side of the home to a small door.  “When this was an observation tower, the basement and the grotto was used to recreation pool for those stationed here.  Occasionally they would fish out of it as well.  Before Alex, it was used as storage.  Now,” George just smiled.

 

Behind the door was a landing and flight of stairs spiraling downward.  They could make out a the shape of another table and chairs below, lit by several lanterns and the afternoon light that must have been coming in from a hole in the cliff.  There was the sound of gentle lapping water and…

 

Humming.  Someone was humming.

 

The three stood, ramrod still.  Laurens just chuckled and pushed his way past them, going down the stairs unafraid.  Martha went second, just smiling as she did so.  

 

“You go first, Tom,” Adams said, pulling back.

 

“What?!  Why me?”

 

“I have a wife!  And children!  And a degree!”

 

“And I have my poor health to consider,” Franklin said, feigning meekness.

 

Jefferson sent them both a withering glare, but stepped forward all the same.  The stairs creaked, but seemed stable enough; the saltwater in the air had done little to damage them or the Washingtons had been diligent in ensuring their upkeep.  He could hear Adams being forced down behind him, commenting on the craftsmanship, as though they were carpenters not scientists.  At the bottom of the stairs was slab of paved over interior rock.  If one only looked at the floor and the first two-thirds of the room was like many other basements in many other homes: a small table with chairs, a small stove, shelves of various items.  But the last third was not a basement.  

 

The last third of the room was ocean and cliff creating a channel of ocean in the basement.  A small circular hole in the rock several feet up the cliffside let in the afternoon sun, shining like a spotlight on Martha and Laurens as they were on the edge of the pool, speaking quietly to the seawater.     They stopped only when Franklin had made his ponderous way down the steps, followed by George.

 

“Gentlemen,” Martha announced, her eyes alight with excitement, “this is our Alex.”

 

She and the apprentice parted to reveal...a boy.  Well, what appeared to be a (human) boy.  Only his head and shoulders were visible.  Rich brown hair that was wet from the sea was pushed away from this face, so they could clearly see his mocha brown eyes and goatee on his somewhat delicate chin.  His neck was long and thin, much like this arms when he placed them on the edge of the pool (also human looking), his a bronze hue.  Jefferson took note of his his small nervous pink lips twitching, unsure whether to smile or frown.

 

“H-hi,” the boy said, waving at the three scientists.

 

“Hello,” only Franklin replied, still smiling jovially.

 

“Alex,” Martha addressed the boy, who looked between eighteen and twenty, “these are the scientist we told you were coming.  To help us...understand you.”  Alex nodded, still staring at the three in curiousity, ducking further into the water so only his eyes, the top of his head, and his fingers could be seen.  “We discussed this.  You have to show them…”

 

Brown eyes looked up at the woman, who looked back with a raised eyebrow.  A silent conversation seemed to be taking place, a bargain being struck.  Finally, the Alex let out annoyed ‘hmph’ and began to lift himself from the water and side onto the basement floor.

 

Benjamin Franklin’s jaw dropped.  John Adams babbled uselessly.  Thomas Jefferson gasped.

 

From the waist up, indeed Alex could be any other human being.  Gentle shoulders, thin waist, bare chest; all human in appearance and shape.  But from the waist down...A tail.  A fish tail that was a thin as the young man’s waist that ended in long wispy fins.  They watched as they boy nervously flexed the tail and brought it down onto the stones gently, though there was still the sound of wet scales hitting stone.

 

**_‘There is no such thing as mermaids, Thomas!  Give up this foolish, irresponsible…’_ **

 

_ His father’s voice was fading as he stepped closer to Alex.  Alex, who seemed as real as the memory he buried deep in his mind.  As real as the ache from the scars on his back.  As real as the look of fear and unease on Alex’s face.  He stopped, halfway to the...to the… _

 

Franklin did not stop though.  To his credit, he had been going at a much slower and calmer pace.  He was in front of the boy, kneeling beside him.  In light from the lanterns and the small hole, the scales of on Alex’s tail gleamed emerald and bronze.  The old scientist, nervously reached out to touch but stopped inches away.  He looked at the boy in awe.  Years of being laughed out of lecture halls by students and faculty alike.  Being forcibly removed from university after university.  Publishers refusing to even publish his essays.

 

“ _ And here you are _ ,” he said in hushed tearful reverence.

 

Alex gulped and then quickly dived back into the water, his fin the last thing they saw.

 

“It’s alright,” Martha assured Jefferson and Franklin, who had both rushed to the water edge to watch the mermaid elegantly swim to lower depths where an opening leading out into the open sea was.  He stopped and looked up through the ocean at them, swimming to the far side of the interior of the grotto and peeping out of the water nervously.  “This is too much for him.  He once he catches his breath and adjusts to you, you can do what you do.”

 

“Catch...his breath?” Jefferson’s voice sounded strange to his ears.  Soft.  High.  Shrill.  Childish.

 

The woman simply nodded knowingly.  “He usually can spend twenty minutes with his tail outside of the water, though he gets a little winded.  But much like your Dr. Adams,” she waved a hand to the small man still babbling and slightly hyperventilating, “this is very exciting.  He’s only ever really met us.  Let me fix you three some tea and we can discuss how this is going to go forward.”

 

Martha and Laurens led Franklin and Jefferson back to the small table to sit down (Laurens gave Thomas a self satisfied little smirk that all but screamed ‘I told you so’).  It took both George and Laurens to maneuver Adams to sit, the man babbling incoherently.  

 

Thomas looked back at the water.  Alex had once again come to the edge of the pool, only his forehead and eyes visible.  Rich beautiful brown eyes, that were staring at Thomas.

 

_ And they kept staring... _


	5. The City

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this late and short. Working on a final at the same time. Will get back into the swing of things soon.
> 
> Remember to stop by red-shadow-wolf-19 on Tumblr to ask questions or such.
> 
> Be Good and Be Nice

_ And he kept staring… _

 

They all three did, but the ‘Thomas Jefferson’ did the most.  Or it bothered Alex the most.  Well, maybe that was not the right word.  And to be fair, he kept staring back.  But still, as Mama brought down some tea for the men and told them all about finding Alex on the beach, the Thomas Jefferson’s eyes were on Alex.  And Alex would feel little bubbles in tummy pop, making him feel something akin to nervous and excitement.  When he expressed this Mama after the men left for bed (he still did not understand how bed could be both a noun and a verb so interchangeably), she just laughed.

 

“You’re just excited!  These men will help you know about yourself and your kind and you will help them!  This is very new for all of us!”

 

“But they,” he didn’t want to single the Thomas Jefferson out, “kept staring at me!”

 

“You have to understand, Sweetheart, that you are a rare find.  Someone very special.”

 

Alex didn’t feel special when he laid himself to rest on the nest of seaweed, algae, and sea sponges he sleep on.  He felt something, though.  Something about the Thomas Jefferson’s eyes.  He barely slept that entire night because of it, and general excitement of the days to come.  And well...he had an appointment.

 

He was up before the sun could break the horizon line, before Mama had gotten up start breakfast or light the lanterns for him in the basement.  He didn’t really need to be quiet, it wasn’t like anyone could hear him swim out of the hole that lead out to sea, but still he moved with care.  Alex moved along the cliff with care away from the grotto that had been his home for nine years, further away where it became to rocky for humans to even sail a boat.

 

Alex once again was at the cave with the jet black seaweed and blood red coral.  It had been easy to find today, even in the dark.  “Ma’am?  Ma’am?” he called into the crevasse.  The three eels appeared once more, but slid past him as though he was not there.  A large slender tentacle reached from behind the faded pink fabric, its underside purple and covered in suction cups that flexed as the appendage beckoned the mermaid inside.

 

The mermaid entered, already used to the obsidian polished surroundings and the human treasures that were crammed in the exceptionally large cavern.  Laying in small alcove was the individual he had come to see; the sea witch.  She was facing her favorite mirror, the overly decorated gold monstrosity that took up one part of the cavern walls, seven of her eight tentacles scrunched up with her in the niche.  Her handsome face held a bored expression as she watched the mirror.  Alex even from where he floated could see shapes in the mirror changing, converging, then reshaping endlessly.  But to him, it was all just a confusing mess.

 

“Miss Angelica?” he asked nervously.

 

“Haven’t I told you,” she moved her head slowly, with each syllable an inch, “to wait until you are spoken to?  It is very rude Alexander to speak unless you are addressed.”  The mermaid put his hands behind his back and looked down apologetically.  “Oh, Little fool that you are, I forgive you.” The tentacle that had greeted him wrapped around his body as the sea witch removed herself from her alcove.  With all of her tentacles spread she seemed to fill the entire room, her slim waist and torso where they met seeming inconsequential to her mass.  

 

Angelica drew the small mermaid boy to her, letting hand come up and touch his face in almost comforting gesture.  Alex gave her a large smile in return; she had been his teacher for these past nine years.

 

“Well,” she said, letting him with push so he floated back, “tell me about these men from the city.  Have they answered all your questions?”

 

“Oh, they haven’t really been the answering mood.  They mostly just looked at me yesterday.  For a really really really long time.  Two are shorter than Papa, like John, but one is even shorter than him!  And one is very wide, the Benjamin Franklin I think.  Or is Doctor Benjamin Franklin.  Or just Doctor?”  The words were rushing out of him so fast that even he was losing track of them.  It didn’t really matter though, the sea witch wasn’t listening.  She was busy getting an overly large sea sponge plumped on a small smooth outcropping in near center of her cave.  As the mermaid kept speaking about, “the John Adams is also called ‘John’ like John but also called ‘For God Sake Breathe Adams’,” Angelica moved him to sit on the sea sponge smiling, humming as the prattle continued on.

 

The only interesting thing worth note finally tumbled from Alex’s lips: “And other one.  The other man is Thomas Jefferson.  And he...and he...kept staring at me.”  It was the first time the mermaid had been lost for words, and the way he fidgeted so tellingly…

 

“Thomas Jefferson?” Angelica kept her voice sweet and curious.  “Describe him.”

 

“He is tall, nearly as tall as Papa.  He has hair like yours and Mama, very curly,” he could conjure an image in his mind’s eye of the man so clearly.  “He was brown eyes but they look they are from a hermit crab’s shell, so bright…”  He drifted off, still thinking about the man.

 

The sea witch was both elated and disgusted.  She had been hoping for this when she had seen the shadows of the men in her mirror and the silly boy had first stumbled upon her prison all those years ago.  But still, it irked her that the boy she had been cultivating could so easily be struck by Cupid’s arrow. 

 

“Enough of this nonsense,” Angelica said, a little too harshly, making Alex sink back onto his seat.  She took a sighed and calmed herself, allowing one of her tentacles to slide along the boy’s small shoulder.  “I have told you about the human world.  About the city.  About the dangers.  How how humans like to hurt.  How heartless they are,” she could hear the usual protest bubbling out of the boy's mouth already.  “No exceptions.  One day, Pet.  One day you’ll see.  And this fascination will end, and you can stay here with me.”   In the place I had prepared…  “Let’s continue our lesson before you have to hurry back.  Where did we leave off?”

 

“The city,” Alex spoke to his chest.  She lifted his chin so his brown eyes could stare into her’s.  “The city, Ma’am.” He repeated it so beautifully without being prompted.

 

She smiled.   _ “The city is the worst of the worse.  Crawling with sinners, rapist, and thieves...” _

 

“The paper does not say that!” Franklin said exasperatedly over his tea cup.

 

Adams flung the paper across the table in the basement in disgust, turning to George in annoyance.  “How do you in Providence get any news with that religious drivel on the front page?!”

 

“We usually skip Pastor Wakefield’s first page and go to the news,” the large man said, a small strained smile on his lips.  Jefferson had to admire his restraint; Adams had recovered his shellshock sometime last night and had been back to usually critical self.  Something that not many people could handle or tolerate.  

 

“Well I’ll be damned!  It does say that,” Franklin said, scanning the paper.  “And the cost of bread has gone up a penny.  Now that is a scandal.”

 

“Would you two like to help or talk about scripture and bread?” asked Jefferson dumping another bucket of seawater into the large metal tub they had placed set up in the basement along with much of their equipment.  They had decided that today they would begin with a cursory physical examination of Alexander Hamilton (why the mermaid had a surname was still beyond Jefferson’s understanding).  To prevent the subject from ‘hyperventilating’ again, Martha had suggested the tub.  Which meant filling it with water.  Which meant physical labor.  Which meant Thomas, with the help of George Washington, doing it.

 

“I would help you, Tommy, but you know at my age…,” the elder coughed unconvincingly.

 

“You are almost done, in any case,” the small man said, waving a hand to the tub that was nearly overflowing with saltwater.

 

They younger man rolled his eyes and went for another bucket but stopped.  Alexander had deemed to make an appearance, resting his chin in his hands as watched the activity in the basement.  Their eyes met and the mermaid’s cheeks went pink, ducking a little back into the water.  The scientist for his part felt his cheeks go scarlet and he nearly dropped the bucket he had been holding.

  
_“So,”_ the pair thought as they looked back at one another, _“they can blush.”_


	6. The Bathtub

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember to follow me on tumblr (red-shadow-wolf-19) and stop by if you have a question or concern (or you just want to say hi). And openmynded once again did some lovely art for the last chapter! Feel free to comment!

“Ah!  Alexander!  You’re here!” Franklin was out of his chair in flash coming to waterside to greet the mermaid face to face.  He pretended to take no notice of the blush on Jefferson’s cheeks as he looked down.  “Are you ready for today?”

 

Alex blinked back at Benjamin Franklin.  “Today?” he repeated.  He looked beyond the scientist to the tub of water.  Mama and Papa had used the tub to show him more of the basement.  It had been where he had learned about words, and fire, and political theory.  But this was not a lazy Sunday with the family.  This was something else…

 

“Today we decided we would start with something easy.  Just a physical examination,” the old human said, a jovial smile playing on his lips.  It faltered for a moment, and he asked, “Do you know what a physical examination is?”

 

“You are going to look at me.”

 

“Well that is part of it.  We are going to write down some observations and ask you some questions.”

 

“C-can I ask you some questions?”

 

Franklin chuckled.  “Of course you can!  Thomas,” he nodded to Thomas, “let’s get Alex ready, shall we?”

 

Thomas nodded and leaned over the pool.  “You are going to need to come here so I can carry you.”

 

Alex looked back in shock; he had assumed Papa would carry him!  After all, he was still in the basement and that was how it had always been done.  He looked at the Thomas Jefferson, who was holding out a hand to him.  The hand look less rough and not as large as Papa’s, but still looked strong and comforting.  “You better not drop me.” he said before he could stop himself, reaching to take the human’s hand.

 

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Thomas laughed at the indignant look he received.  It took some work but finally the little mermaid was in his arms bridal style.  

 

He was immediately struck with how light the mermaid was, something he mentioned to Franklin and Adams on his way to the tub (it made Alex blush).  There was probably good reason for the lightness; Alex’s whole life would be spent swimming against and with currents.  He was also awed at how flexible the other’s tail was.  While, yes, he was being held ‘bridal’ style, implying (that in humans anyway) one of Thomas’s arms should be lifting Alex’s ‘knees’, this was inaccurate with a mermaid.  Mermaids seemingly did not have ball-socket joints; Alex could twist his fin every which way (and did) as he was carried to the tub.  

 

“Doesn’t that hurt?” the young scientist asked, after one elaborate twist of the tail before the mermaid was lowered into the tub.

 

“No.  Why would it?” asked the mermaid, wriggling to get comfortable in the tight space of the tub.  Even if he was small, he did need space.

 

The three looked at one another, unsure how to answer that.  Adams recorded some notes in a journal and handed a magnifying glass and tweezers to Franklin.  The old man waved them away, for now at least.  “Alright.  For right now, I think we should just ask you some questions and have you answer to the best of your ability.  There is no need to nervous that you can’t answer or can’t explain, just do your best.  These are rather personal questions, about your body.  And I know you will feel embarrassed, but know that we will not judge or laugh.  Is that alright Alexander?”

 

“And I will be right here if you need me,” George said coming into view. 

 

“I can still ask questions too, right?” 

 

“Of course.”  Alex looked down at his hands, twisting in what would have been his lap if he had legs and nodded.  Franklin smiled fondly at the boy.  “Okay, let’s start with something easy shall we.  Where are your gills?”

 

“Which ones?”

 

The men looked at one another, before looking back at the mermaid.  Adams was already writing furiously in a notebook.  “Both sets, if you please.” Franklin asked, straining to sound nonchalant.

 

Alex pointed to his mouth.  “When I am in water I just use my mouth and nose, like you use yours when are in air.  But when you know, my upper part, my…,” the mermaid looked confused for a moment.  “Is it called a torso or waist?”

 

“Torso,” Thomas said helpfully.

 

“Torso then.  If my torso is out of the water, I use my bottom gills,” he indicated what would have been his waist.  They peered where he was indicating; almost invisible among the shiny emerald and bronze scales where four curved slits.  They watched them contract and relax, ever so slightly, in time to Alex’s breathing.  

 

“Remarkable,” Adams breathed, scribbling in the notebook.

 

“Can I ask a question now?” 

 

“Didn’t you just do that?” Jefferson teased.  The mermaid sent him a look of annoyance (a pout really, but no one commented on it.)

 

“Go on.  I am always ready to encourage the transfer of knowledge,” Franklin said.

 

“What are those?”  Alex’s hand shot from the tub in a flash to point an inch from Franklin’s face to the spectacles that rested on his nose.

 

“These?” Franklin removed them, avoiding the finger near his nose.  He handed them to the mermaid, who gingerly held them up to the light.  “They help me see.  They are called spectacles, though some call them glasses.  Certain humans are born with poor eyesight, or like me, lose some vision as we get older.  Here put them on.”  He reached over the tub and took the glasses from the mermaid.  He placed them upon Alex’s face with care.  They all held back laughter as the mermaid looked around at the basement.  

 

“I feel like I’m in whirlpool!”

 

Franklin chucked, taking back the glasses.  “Well you already have good eyesight.  Which brings me to my next question: can you see better in or out of the water?”

 

“I can see about the same.  It’s the looking through water to the surface where things get...funny.  Can I ask another question?”  They all nodded, expecting Alex to ask about clothing or hair or shoes or Adam’s cane.  “What are your thoughts on the proposed tax increase for the county?”  Just not that.

 

They all blinked and turned to George in amazement.  He simply smiled and shrugged.  “Alex is always interested in politics and government.  He was taught to read from the newspaper and the my son’s old university textbooks,”  The large man waved to shelf behind them were history, literature, political, and economic theory books lined the walls.  Even from here (and with Franklin’s poor eyesight) they could see there was slight water damage, mostly likely from Alex reading the book while leaning over the side of the very tub he was in now.  They looked back at the mermaid, who looked back expectantly.

 

“I must confess not to keep up with much to about politics,” Franklin finally conceded.  “It’s a mania.”

 

“Taxes are a sticky issue,” Adams said simply, unsure what to say in response.  What do you say to mermaid asking about taxes?!

 

“Well,” Alex said, crossing his arms matter-of-factly, “I am for the tax.”

 

Thomas made a tsking noise and rolled his eyes.  “Says the fish that can’t pay taxes.”

 

The mermaid twisted in the tub to face the human, water sloshing as he did so.  “If I did pay taxes I would do so gladly.  The money raised will go to improve roads and avenues and bridges.  For the betterment of the county.  For the betterment of all!  Besides it’s small tax for business owners that will help them gain goods and material!”

 

“Point one,” Thomas began ticking them off on his finger.  It had been years since he had debated politics but he could almost remember the pure thrill of rhetoric.  “A road and avenue are the same thing.  One is in the city and one is not.  Point two, you are only looking at business owners.  You are not thinking of farmers, who is taxed far more than the business owners under the proposed taxes.”

 

“Don’t farmers use the roads too?!  More frequently than everyone else?  How else are they supposed to ship wheat?”

 

“What about those who ship tobacco?”

 

Alex went to retort but stopped.  “What’s tobacco?”

 

“It’s highly intensive sharecrop.  It is murder to produce, and extensive too.  While the there is profit to be made for it, you are paying for all the labor, all the time, all the-”

 

“What type of bread does tobacco make?”

 

Every other human politely looked away to prevent the mermaid from knowing how humorous they found this, Adams for one near crying from the hysterical innocence the question had been posed.

 

The youngest scientist just put a hand to his forehead in frustration.  “It doesn’t matter what its used for!  The point I am trying to show you is that this tax is unfair to whole group of people!  Why should one group suffer because they  _ need _ the road to make their livelihood?  A baker could take up move to a new county with better roads and better wheat fields.  A builder can build just about anywhere.  The hell is a farmer going to do?”

 

“They can move their farm or learn to bake!” the mermaid said, the certainty in his voice an exclamation point to the determination in his voice.

 

“You can’t pick up a farm!  I...I am arguing with a fish!” Thomas turned away from the tub.  He his heart was somewhere in his chest beating too fast.  That determination.  That self-assurance.   _ Those eyes.  Those lips. _ _ That hand that reached out for his. _

 

It was surprisingly warm despite how wet it was.  He felt so human.  He turned back to the tub.  The mermaid looked back at him, almost  _ helpless _ .

 

“Don’t turn away and not debate with me.”  Alex had never had anyone debate with him before.  Or at least not like this.  Laurens and he had always seen eye to eye on things, though the other had never corrected him on terminology.  Papa listened to both sides of an argument and picked the parts he liked.  He called it compromising.  (Alex struggled with this concept on more that one level).  Mama, much like Franklin, found politics and debates exhausting.  She said it fighting hurt her heart, so Alex tried his best not to when she was around.  And Angelica…

 

_ You don’t debate your teacher, Alex. _

 

But debating with Thomas had felt like he was in the pub on public forum days.  Like his voice was being heard.  And when he touched his hand...the bubbles in his tummy were back.  Adams noted that the small gill slits more noticeably, as though he was trying breathing more rapidly.  He noted this.

 

Thomas looked over the mermaid, head to tail with a quirked eyebrow.  “Do you really want to finish this?”  An overly eager nod.  “Then answer this: Why is your last name Hamilton?  Why do you even have a last name?”

 

The mermaid blinked.  He had forgotten about the examination.  “Oh.  That’s my school name.  The school I was born into was from a bay called Hamilton Bay.  We go by our name and the school name.  So, Alexander Hamilton.”

 

Thomas nodded.  “Ready for point three?”

  
Alex grinned.  “Ready.”


	7. Samples

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to midnigtartist for the shout out on tumblr! Remember also you can ask/talk/find me on tumblr at red-shadow-wolf-19
> 
> This chapter has some sex/gender binary language so be warned. Also, probably some inaccurate biology. I am a history major. Ask me about impact of the French Revolution on Europe and colonialism, I have an answer. Zoology or biology question, I stare at you blankly and recall some fact from my general ed class days.

And thus it continued.  Alex and Thomas would debate, with occasional breaks for the human to explain ‘land terms’, and Franklin would cut in with questions about the mermaid.  They discovered for example Alex had a secondary eyelid, near visible that slipped over his eye so he could see and not get blinded by the salty water.  They found out that Alex could not process ‘land food’, be liked the smell of cinnamon and bread.  The mermaid for his part found out that farms were places where things grew, many things that were rooted (tied) to the ground.  Building, though, were man made and could be made of stone, wood (a plant), or a mix of the two.  Some buildings were made of mud.  “And the government taxes you for the land you build your house on.”

 

“But isn’t it the government's?”

 

“But isn’t it my home?”

 

Before Alex had gotten to retort, Franklin cut in, “As much as this has been an entertaining discourse, we still have a few things we would like to cover before we move onto some of the more intrusive parts of the exam.  It deals with a delicate topic.”  He looked over to Adams, as though the man would help him with phrasing.  Adams looked stoically back.  No help.  “Sex.”

 

George coughed in surprise looking scandalized.  “To my knowledge, Alex is the only other mermaid for miles!  And he’s still so young!”

 

“I’m nineteen!” Alex said defiantly, but unsure of what was being discussed.

 

“You misunderstand me.  While Alex is indeed the only mermaid for miles, seemingly, there is a lot of information that can be provided.  And I am not referring to the laymen way of speaking about sex as in reproduction.  I am speaking to the more appropriate for physical gender.  You, and we have adapted his too in the short day here, have referred to Alex as ‘he’.  What I want to know, is that accurate?  Is Alexander, male?”

 

The man looked at his ‘son’ in the bathtub, who looked back in confusion.  He looked back at the scientist.  “Look at him!  HE doesn’t have...doesn’t have...Look at his chest!”

 

The four did.  “What’s wrong with my chest?” Alex asked.

 

“Nothing,” Thomas said quickly, but then looked away.

 

“What your caretaker is referring to is there are physical differences between human sexes,” Adams decided to jump in at this time.  “Females have pronounced mammary glands on their chest where they can give milk to their young, a vagina and uterus to produce and give birth to these young, and a clitoris to derive sexual pleasure.  Males, on the other hand, have mammary glands and a penis and testicles to help hold sperm for reproduction to make offspring with human females.”

 

“That is the most unromantic talk about sexual incourse I have ever heard,” Franklin said in disgust.  “I would hate to hear your bedroom talk with Abigail.”

 

“I would hate for you listen.”

 

“I don’t understand,” Alex shook his head.  “What does that have to do with anything?”

 

“We want to determine if you are male or female, and if that is typical for those of your kind,” the older doctor replied.

 

“But I don’t understand.  What do you mean by ‘vagina’ or ‘clitoris’or ‘penis’ ?”  He looked to Thomas when he asked, his eyes so curious and trusting.  Jefferson shifted uncomfortably and stood up from the chair he had been sitting in.

 

“Nevermind these terms.  Alex, are you a male or female?”

 

“I’m Alex.”

 

“And what is Alex?”

 

“A mermaid.”

 

There was a three way sigh between George, Adams, and Franklin (and a hearty chuckle from Jefferson).  “Write male.  If we find something to disprove that, we can correct it later.”

 

After that, the exam became...unpleasant for Alex.  Painful would be a more apt description.  The vials, tweezers, and now a ‘needle’ was back.  And Alex learned first hand what they were.  

 

Tweezers pull hair and scales off, before placing them in vials.  Jefferson tried to talk to him about something to do with the census in the county, but he didn’t hear him.  They wanted both an emerald and bronze scale. He whimpered as he watched them be taken from his fin.

 

The needle reminded him of an urchin’s spikes, but at finer point.  He looked around to Papa, hoping he would stop it.  Papa looked back with a worried expression  _ but did nothing _ .

 

_ Haven’t I always told you?  Humans lie.  Humans hurt.  Humans kill.  Humans are  _ **_heartless_ ** .

 

“Hey.”  Alex looked around to find Thomas kneeling beside the tub, his face awash in concern.  “You alright?”

 

“It looks…”  He didn’t want to seem weak or cowardly, but suddenly things had not become as fun or lighthearted as they had been.  Couldn’t they have asked about his scales?  They couldn’t have joked about his hair. Or his eyebrow.  He didn’t know what they were exactly going to do with the needle but so far it didn’t look at all good.

 

“Alex, look at me.”  He did.  “Do you want to ask me a question?  Anything about humans?  Anything you really want to know?”

 

The mermaid kept staring.  Finally, “What’s the difference between the noun form of ‘bed’ and the verb form?”

 

“The noun form is what humans sleep on, while the verb is the act of going to sleep.  Where do mermaids sleep?”

 

“We sleep on nests of soft things around the ocean.  Or at least I do.  I can remember being in Hamilton bay, and someone sleeping on coral.  But it’s been so long-”

 

“Done!”

 

Alex twisted around in shock to see Franklin hand Adams two vials of blood samples, one from his arm and one from his tail.  “What…?”

 

“Needles are scary most often look far more scary than they actually are,” Thomas explained, reaching a hand by instinct to Alex’s.  The mermaid stared in confusion at the gesture.  “When I was little, my mother would distract me during doctor appointments.  You may feel a little sore though.  We did draw blood.”

 

Now that he mentioned it, he could feel a bit of soreness in right arm and small patch of his tail.  He looked back at the table where the vials of ‘him’ now were labeled and placed in a neat small tray.  They had taken ‘cotton swabs’ and poked the inside of his cheek, nose, and ear.  Taken blood and scales.  Would they want…

 

“Do you want tear samples?” Alex asked, near a whisper.  

 

Thomas could see his eyes already brimming with unshed ‘samples’.  The tears, not yet wept, were already different than human tears; they had a milky consistency with a golden hue that glowed to emphasis the grief and pain that the mermaid felt.  He turned to see his fellow scientists.  Franklin looked moved by the display, a hand over his heart.  Adams was hard to gauge, since he kept writing in the journal, but when his head swung up he looked like he too was about to tear up.

 

“No, Alexander,” Thomas replied, giving the small hand he held a squeeze.  “The samples Mr. Laurens brought us should be more than efficient for now.”

 

Alex nodded and took a few calming breaths, that no one could tell he took except from his rising and falling chest.  “I’m tired,” he confessed finally, wriggling in the confining tub.

 

“It has been a very exciting day,” George said, stepping to the tub and putting a hand on his adopted son’s shoulder.  Thomas withdrew his hand when the older man sent him a suspicious look, returning the glare with an apologetic smile.  Alex watched the hand retreat mildly disappointed.  “I’m sure there is more you gentlemen would like to know from our Alexander.”

 

“Indeed there is!” Franklin said, bouncing back to his jovial self once more.  “And this has been an once in a lifetime day out in the field.  And I’m sure Alex learned a lot as well.”

 

“I still don’t understand what tobacco is?  Or the difference between a penis or vagina!”  the mermaid exclaimed.  Everyone held their tongue.

 

George reached into the tub and scooped the curious ‘boy’ out of the water. “That’s enough discovery today.”

 

Alex kept wriggling in his arms, twisting back to face the scientists.  Well, one scientist is particular.  “Have you ever read John Locke?”

 

“I have a copy of his latest pamphlet in my trunk,” Thomas replied, still kneeling by the tub.  

 

The mermaid’s eyes went wide.  “Will you let me read it?”

 

_ I would read it to you if that would make you smile.  Would that be enough? _


	8. Obligations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember, if you have any questions or concerns, don't be afraid to comment or come by my tumblr (red-shadow-wolf-19)
> 
> Warning: Slight torture scene, but no blood.

“The data we’ve been able to compile is simply remarkable!” Franklin said, flipping through one of the now numerous journals of notes and sketches they had gathered.  

 

They were coming on about the fifteenth day at the Washingtons, and things had settled into something of a routine.  Martha would wake everyone up with a large breakfast fit for an army before sending George and Laurens out to work and the scientists to the basement.  At first they would have to wait for Alexander to make an appearance, for after all Alex had his morning appointments to get to (unbeknownst to the humans).  But increasing though, Alex would be waiting for them when they walked down the stairs, eager to continue where they had left off from the day before.  They would trade questions, have the mermaid do an activity or puzzle as a test of cognitive or physical skill, and record their findings.  In the evenings, once the master and apprentice returned, the humans would all gather around the small table in the Washington’s dining room after dinner and trade humorous anecdotes from the day.  

 

Well, all except Thomas.  He had taken to spending his evenings down in the basement, sitting by the water’s edge with a book, pamphlet, or chalk and slate with the mermaid leaning against the edge of the pool.  Their heads would be bowed together over the item in question or thrown back as they laughed at some piece of commentary the other had made.  Each day it seemed they would end his ‘meeting’ closer and closer, their smiles when they saw each other more and more pronounced.  Adams had made a note of that in his personal journal and the Washingtons had remarked on it privately to one another.

 

“Do you think you have enough to show other scientists?” Laurens asked.  They were all once again upstairs in the dining area, Franklin and Adams, well mostly Adams, organizing the notes into a logical order.  The older man seemed more content drawing out pieces of research from already catalogued piles and setting them down in different locations, to the chagrin of the small man.

 

“To be frank,” the increasingly frustrated man said, placing one sketch of he had made of Alex’s waist gills back on the pile he had deemed for respiratory biology, “we barely have enough to teach a class for a full term at a university.  Let alone convince the academic establishment that we are telling the truth.”

 

“Five people seeing a mermaid isn’t enough?!” Martha looked up from her needlework in shock.

 

“Five people is a conspiracy, my lady,” Franklin said sadly.  “Or so they shall say.”

 

“But what more could they want!” Laurens’s voice was near yelling with exasperation.

 

Adams shrugged, taking another sketch from an incorrect pile.  “I would imagine more ‘field observations’ of Alex in his natural habitat.”

 

“Haven’t you been doing that?”

 

“Not exactly.  We have been observing Alexander in a controlled environment.  The basement is not exactly his ‘natural habitat’, is it?  I mean, you would not call an aquarium the natural habitat of a goldfish, would you?”

 

Martha and George looked at one another with a mix of sadness and realization.  It had been years since they had thought about Alex as anything other than their second chance at parenthood.  His comings and goings from the basement had not been a concern or cause of study.  He had always been there, happy and eager and wanting a story.  Like any child.   **But he wasn’t child, was he?**

 

Laurens shook his head, trying to wrap his mind what was being said.  “But...but how do you plan on getting observation of Alex outside of the basement?  I mean, I don’t recall you lot bringing any deep sea gear with you.”

 

Franklin smiled, taking another journal from the center of a pile causing a small avalanche of papers to scatter about the table (Adams nearly wept).  “We’ve been working on this for quite some time now.  Before you even came to our little storefront.  Chemistry is wondrous thing after all.   _ We call it ius pulmonis dilatationem aquae.” _

 

“Now you are just making up stuff!” Alex splashed Thomas, narrowly getting the chalk slate the human had been using to explain the ‘chemistry’ that would help him ‘observe’ the mermaid outside of the basement.

 

Thomas laughed.  “It’s latin!  You have a textbook right over there!” he pointed back at the wall with other books.  “It doesn’t matter what the name is, to be honest.  In a few days, once John and Benjamin are done gathering and making the damn thing, I should be able to swim with you for a time.  If it goes anything like the last time we used it, about an hour or so.”

 

“The last time you did this?” the mermaid frowned.

 

“We tested it a few months ago looking for, well, you.  But we were in some underwater caves and there no mermaids and I kept getting lost.  If it wasn’t for some dolphins coming by looking for fish, I would have ran out of air and…”  The scientist shrugged the memory away.  

 

“And now, you are going to be swimming with me.”  Alex leaned against the edge of the pool close to where Thomas sat, pant legs rolled up so he could dangle his feet in the water.

 

“I suppose,” Jefferson said with exaggerated sigh.  He leaned forward, a flirtatious grin on his face.  “You can show me what you’re hiding?”

 

“Hiding?”

 

“You know,” he leaned toward Alex even more, “Your favorite places, how you look while swimming near a coral bed…. **where you sleep** ,” that was said with so much emphasis that the mermaid blush but didn’t know why.  Thomas sat up immediately at the first sign of discomfort from the other boy.  “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you.”

 

“No!  You didn’t offend me!” The mermaid assured him.  “It’s just...It’s just that…”  Alex was unsure how to describe the feeling he had had at the thought of the human being so close.  Sure, Jefferson had been the one, for the most part, to take him in and out of the tub but there was something different about him being in the water with him.  He would be right beside Alex...

 

There was a slight tugging at his tail that took him away from his thoughts.  He glanced down and paled.  Three eels,  **the three eels** , were circling his tail their eyes glowing up at him.   **Her** eyes glowing up at him.  This had been the sixth day in a row he had skipped…

 

“I need to go!” he said, pushing away from the edge, sending an array of water into Thomas’s lap.

 

“What?!  Why?!  Was it because of what I said?!” Thomas spluttered, removing this legs from the sea so quickly, as though they were the cause of offense.

 

“No!  No!  I just…,” there was another tug on his fin and it made him wince, “I have to get crabs for Mama!  She wants to make you her crab bisque!  Or is it soup?”  The next tug was violent and made him cry out.  “AIII DOESn’t matter! I just need to go.”  And with that he dove down beneath the water and out the grotto opening.

 

The eels followed closely as he swam for the cave.  Occasionally one would catch up with him and bite him.  He was covered in them by the time he reached the pink curtain.  “Ma’am!  I’m-”

 

His words are cut off as a large black tentacle wrapps around his throat.  His words become a strangled gurgle.  Two more wrap around him, one his chest and another around his waist where scale and skin meet.

 

Angelica’s eyes glowed with the eels as she dragged the mermaid into the cave.  “Poor Little Alex.  Forgot his agreement!  Forgot his oldest friend!  Forgot his responsibilities.  Forgot  **me** !”

 

Alex struggled in the grip of the sea witch, eyes filling with same golden hue of tears that had moved the humans.  The sea witch was unimpressed.  She did loosen the grip at Alex’s throat to hear the stuttered plea of, “I’m sorry,” before sending a wave concentrated electricity through the tentacle at the boy’s waist.  The tears fell, crystallizing near instantly into multicolored pearls and gems that collected on the floor of the cave.  

 

“Oh Alex,” Angelica’s voice became soft as stopped the assault and the smaller creature closer to her.  She ran a hand down his face, collecting tearful treasure as she did so.  “Do you remember all those years ago, when you first found my cave after those humans found you?  Do you remember how sad, how pathetic you were?  Still thinking your mother was out there looking for you.  I helped you, didn’t I?  Showed you the truth.  I promised to always show you the truth.  And what did I ask for, Alex?  Did I ask for much?  Anything you could not give?”

 

“Y-you asked for my h-heart,” Alex blubbered, nuzzling into the warm hand that stroked his face.  It withdrew, almostly at once.  “But I still love you Angelica!  I do!  But-”

 

“But you still find the surface and humans so fascinating, I know my precious fool,” the sea witch ran the tip of a tentacle over the mermaid’s jawline.  This was not as well received as the hand had been, causing the other to squirm.  A warning squeeze from the tendrils still around his body was all it took though to make the boy go still.  “Your heart is consumed by your curiosity and it cannot be mine if even an inch longs for the surface.  I always knew this.  And one day,”  She scrunched up her face and flung herself dramatically into her alcove in front of the mirror, “you will understand the evil that is the humanity.  You’ll see!  Those men up there will hurt you!  And just the pain of a few scales or hairs!  No!  True, honest to goodness,  **pain** .”

 

“You’re wrong, Angelica!  They won’t!  Franklin, Adams, and Thomas are so very nice, and funny, and smart!  You’ll see!  Just like Mama, Papa, and John!  You’ll see-”  

 

He stopped short.  He looked away, knowing he had gone too far in disrespecting his teacher.  Angelica just sighed.  “Oh you stupid, stupid, little thing.  Those humans are using you!  ‘Mama and Papa’ want a child so badly they keep treating you like one.  If you were human, you would be out getting a job and part of the community.  But you aren’t, so to them, you are always the boy, permanently their baby from the sea.  

 

“‘John’ is their apprentice, learning a trade.  One day he is not going to want to work, my Dear.  Humans are lazy creatures, and when they discover a way not to work they take it.”  A tentacle reached out to wipe a string of opal tears from Alex’s face.  “Imagine the things he would do for this?!  Imagine the pain.  The misery.  The agony.  And he won’t stop until you can’t cry anymore then...well then you won’t be of any use.

 

“And these last three.  These Franklins.  These Adamses.  This  **_Thomas_ ** .  Oh, they are the worst of all. 

  
**_“Just you wait…”_ **


	9. Field Test

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is coming in so late.
> 
> Remember feel free to comment or stop by and leave an ask/comment/etc at my tumblr (red-shadow-wolf-19).

The three ‘laymen’ sat around the table in the basement in nervous excitement.  They watched as John Adams examined the beaker of purple-ish liquid carefully, humming to himself as he stroked his chin thoughtfully.

 

“Is the potion ready, Dr. Adams?” asked Martha, breathlessly.

 

“Elixir,” the small man corrected.  A bit more politely, he added, “It appears it is indeed, Madam.”  

 

Franklin, who was standing on the other side of Adams, took off his spectacles to peer at the liquid as well.  He nodded, giving it his seal of approval.  The younger man shook his head and rolled his eyes; he had designed the elixir and knew when it was ready better than the ‘old sage’.

 

Alex watched from the pool of water, slightly fidgeting as watched the proceedings.  Today was the day that Thomas would swim with him.  He had waited, not at all patiently, for this day.  If someone had asked him why he was excited he would have said something along the lines of eagerness to see a human swim or having someone out in the open water with him.  But he was lying.  And he was starting to come to terms with that fact.

 

Thomas, as well, had been looking forward to this day.  And not because of the pursuit of knowledge.  He caught the eye of the mermaid and winked.  The mermaid giggled back.  

 

Adams frowned.  “Well, I suppose you should prepare yourself, Mr. Jefferson.”

 

The younger man nodded and began to take off his shoes and socks.  Martha politely turned away and Laurens shifted uncomfortably.

 

“Why does Jefferson get to go,” he asked.  He had always been a bit protective of mermaid since he had come to work and live with the Washingtons.

 

“Because Thomas will know what to look for and observe.  As well as how to word such things when it comes to a report,” Franklin explained.  Adams snorted, receiving a confused look from the older man.

 

The younger scientist stood up and took the hem of his white shirt in his hands.  There was a moment of hesitation, realizing another aspect of  the intimacy what was about to take place.  He glanced back at Alex; the other seemed completely unaware the line they were about to cross.  Well, how could he?  With a deep breath, he yanked the shirt over his head and threw it aside.  Again, he looked at the mermaid.  Alex’s mouth was open in a little ‘o’ and his eyes were wide.  It was the best compliment he had ever been given.  Jefferson smirked as he tugged down his trousers to reveal his under shorts.  This was going to be interesting, to say the least.

 

There was a small cough at his side, bringing him back to the present.  Adams stared up at him with a raised eyebrow, holding the beaker of elixir in one hand.  “Ready?”

 

“As I’ll ever be,” he said taking the beaker.

 

“Now, you will probably only have about two hours of air.  And this doesn’t give you free reign to go deeper than you normally could.  And for God sakes, do not go into any caves or anything of that nature.  When this stops working,” the small scientist just shrugged.

 

“I remember, John.  I remember all of this from the last time we did this and you gave me your little lecture.  You forgot the part where this stuff only expands my lung capacity and I’m still holding my breath, so don’t do anything stren-”

 

“Stupid.”

 

Thomas just grinned and drank the purple liquid.  He could feel a slight burn in his lungs and there was the sensation of airways expanding.  But just like that it was over and he was ready.  He gave a nod to the two scientist.  “I believe it's settled now.”

 

“Well, then, get to it!  Remember we want your report in two hours,” Franklin said, waving his hand at the towards the pool.

 

“Have  fun ,” Adams quipped.

 

Alex pushed back from the edge of the pool as Thomas neared.  He didn’t look different from before the ‘elixir’.  But he definitely looked different with his clothing off; without his shirt, the mermaid could see the definition of muscles that were the scientist’s chest and arms.  His under shorts rode low on his hip and he could see beginning of the other’s pelvic region.  A surge of curiosity came to ask about what was beneath the dark material but he quelled that at once.

 

“Are you coming or not,” was all he said.  Thomas just laughed and jumped in.  

 

He took a moment at the surface to get used to the temperature of the water.  “It’s fucking cold!”

 

“Language!” Martha called, now able to turn back and watch the proceedings.

 

“It’s not cold!” Alex countered, “The air is cold!  That’s why you have to wear things over your scales.”

 

“Skin.”

 

“Same thing.”

 

Thomas shook his head and paddled around from a time, dunking his head under the water a few times.  The first time he put his head up, Alex fell back into the water laughing at his damp hair.  “It just looks so...not you!” he explained when he finally calmed down.  He received a splash in response.  

 

Finally adjusted to the water and calmed down from laughing, the boys were ready to set off.  Alex had been tasked to simply swim around and fish for that night’s dinner, as well as make sure Thomas didn’t drown.  Thomas took a deep breath and dove down beneath the water, Alex slipping in beside him.  

 

It was slow going at first, Thomas unable to control how his body naturally tired to float back to the surface or the pressure in his ears.  The chemical that Adams had made him rub in his eye to prevent saltwater damage worked gave everything a silvery hue.  Alex had to pull him down towards the hole that lead out of the basement. 

 

“Why are you so slow?!” 

 

It took him a moment to realize it wasn’t his imagination that playing tricks on him, and he was actually hearing Alex’s voice.  It was distorted, sounding distant and somewhat muffled, but Alex was definitely speaking to him as easily as he spoke on land.  He shrugged back, his mouth clamped shut still holding the large precious gulp of air that was his life for the next hour and fifty five minutes.

 

The mermaid realized that he would be having a one sided conversation as soon as he had spoken.  Part of him felt disappointed; he had hoped he and the other man could speak much like the do in the basement every night.  But still, he was out here, with him.  

 

The sea outside the basement was as it always was for Alexander.  The usual schools of fish swam by, following scents and movement of food.  The coral that clung to the cliff swayed with current.  A ray glided past effortlessly, leaving a small trail of bubbles as he passed.  A standard Tuesday under the sea.  Thomas nearly let out the air he was holding in awe.  The ray swooped closer and the human reached to touch it’s underbelly.

 

“No!” Alex grabbed his hand.  Thomas looked back in alarm and insult.  “They don’t like to be touched on their bellies.  Especially that one.  If you want to pet one, you have to follow me to the nursery.”  And he set off, pausing only to look back to see if Thomas was following.  He wasn’t.  He was staring back at the mermaid.  “Are you coming?!”  The human nodded vigorously and did his best to keep up.

 

It was memorizing to watch Alex swim.  His scales shone and sparkled in the water and the few rays of sun that cut through the blue.  He twisted and fought each undercurrent with ease, his tail going vertical or horizontal to fit the needs at the time.  Each move he had made was poetry or song in motion.  When they finally reached the inland alcove that Alex had called ‘the nursery’ the mermaid twisted back to look at him; brown hair spread out in the water like a fan and mocha eyes so perfect as they met his.  

 

“Here it is!”  You have to careful not to scare them or chase them into the reef,” Alex said in stage whisper as Thomas paddled closer.  In the alcove, a family of rays were swam in seemingly endless circle, the little ones following their mother’s trail much in the same way ducklings on land do.  Alex swam closer to the small herd, barely using his tail at all.  During one of the loops of the family he made a small twirl pool motion with his hand around one of the small rays, distracting it away from its family.  It followed the motion as the mermaid led it back to the human who watched in amazement.  

 

When the little ray finally did find its way to Thomas, it seemed to take up trying make a circle around him, though it kept getting sidetracked by something.  Alex gently pushed the water around the ray, putting it back on its set course.  “They like to be scratched when they are younger, but be gentle.  And mind the stinger.”

 

Thomas looked skeptically at the little ray circling him.  He could hardly believe a sea creature liked to be petted in much the same way a dog or a cat did.  Still, he held out his hand and on one of the many mini loops of the baby ray he scratched.  The ray slowed, its small circle becoming sloppy as it seemed to sway in pleasure.

 

Alex giggled.  “He likes you!”  He looked around the small alcove slightly nostalgic.  “This was going to be our home.”  Thomas looked up from petting the small ray (he was quickly becoming attached to the small thing) in surprise.  The mermaid was not looking at him however; he wasn’t looking at anything.  He looking at a time long since past.  “We came here, my real Mama and I, for a season.  We swam all this way, following the boats that would come to Hamilton Bay.  She wanted me to show me where the stars come from, where the lights dance.  I got tired and she said we could wait a season here...right here…”

 

The mother ray had finally noticed one of her offspring were missing and had glided over to the still delighted calf spinning around Thomas.  She made short work of getting the small ray back into line and the family back to swimming their lazy circle.  This, though, went unnoticed by Thomas.  He looked at the small mermaid near tears, lost in the past.  He had been told by Martha about how Alex came to be with them.  The woman considered the boy a gift from God.

 

**_But the Lord gives and takes away, Martha._ **

 

He did it without thinking.  It seemed as natural as breathing.  The little mermaid gave out a squeak in shock but he didn’t care.  He reached out and gathered Alex into his arms, holding him close to his chest.  

 

Alex blushed.  The human was as warm hot shore sand.  His arms and chest felt strong as the cliffs, but safe like the grotto or basement.  Thomas curly hair swayed in the water  Deep eyes stared back into his.  

 

The human placed a comforting hand on Alex’s cheek.  It was so warm!  Alex nuzzled into it with a contented smile, his tears vanishing before they could fall.  

 

‘A minute more here would not hurt that silly report,’ Thomas thought, relishing the smaller man in his arms.

 

‘A minute more won’t hurt me,’ Alex thought, risking placing his head on the other’s chest in contentment.

 

_ And the rays danced... _


	10. The Sea Witch's Bargain

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to comment or stop by my tumblr (red-shadow-wolf-19) to ask/comment/etc about this or anything else!

“He can sense a current change?” Franklin looked shocked over his tea cup.

 

Thomas nodded, stuffing another forkful of shepard’s pie in his mouth.  Swimming had given him a hearty appetite, something Martha was all to ready accommodate.  When he finally swallowed, he continued, “He would be swimming along his tail horizontal and suddenly he would just stop and wait for a beat, then go on with it vertical.  He can use it tell where and how far fish are in the water, even those that hide in coral.  He just feels how they move in the water.”

 

“Simply amazing,” the older man said, looking over at his colleague writing notes.  “We assumed some sort of trait like this, but...not at this level.”

 

“Alex says that it comes in handy with migration.”

 

Adams stopped writing and looked up, eyebrows knitted together.  “Migration?”

 

Another nod.  “Apparently mermaids do not stay in the same school for their entire lives.  They come go as they please, only moving in family pods until the parent or guardian deems they have taught their young enough.  From how Alex made it sound, Hamilton Bay is a family reunion point and spawning ground.”  The words ‘spawning ground’ felt wrong somehow to refer to the mermaid, or at least to Thomas.  It felt foreign.  Cold.  Cynical.  Passionless.  Nothing he would associate with the brown haired boy who had giggled at Thomas’s pathetic attempts to keep up with a swordfish a few hours ago.  Or who had rested his head on his chest like he was only solid thing in the ocean.

 

“Just astounding,” Franklin seemed unaware of the younger man’s dilemma.

 

“Hold on,” Adams said.  He had noticed Jefferson’s discomfort but chose not to touch on it.  “If Alex migrate for back to where they were born to reconnect, mate, and breed,” another look of disquiet from Thomas, “why hasn’t Alexander returned to Hamilton Bay?”

 

“Maybe he’s too young?  I mean, yes in human terms we know he is nineteen, but what if the age of maturity for mermaids is older?”

 

Thomas made a face of discomfort.  The idea of Alex being a ‘child’ made him ill.  “I think it has more to do with Alex feeling he’s not ready.  He made a point of saying that a pod breaks up when a child has been taught everything the pod can teach.”

 

“But Alex doesn’t have a pod.”

 

“He does, though,” Adams said, closing his journal with a sigh.  “The Washingtons are his pod now.”

 

“I suppose that does make sense,” Franklin conceded thoughtfully.  “They found him and took him in.  Taught him to read and about as much of the human world as they could explain.  All they really need to do now is find a female mermaid, and our dear Alexander would be set.”

 

“Or a male human,” Adams muttered under his breath, looking over to Thomas who looking at the pool of water with unconcealed longing.

 

Almost on cue, the younger scientist turned to smaller man and asked, “When can we do a second dive?”

 

“Eager for ‘knowledge’ that badly?” he replied.

 

“Your body needs time to recover!  And poor Alex looked like he was ready to burst from all the excitement of you swimming with him,” the oldest man explained.  Adams nearly choked on his tea from laughing, but hid it with a cough.  

 

“Y-yes,” he said through his spluttering, “let  _ Alex calm down!” _

 

But Alex could barely hear the sea witch, simply giggling as he twisted little loops in the cave.  He had never felt like this!  This mix of giddy and excitement!  This mix of belly flops and bubbles!  In his mind he could still see Thomas playing with the rays, swimming after him as they raced along the reef, holding him close…It made him feel like singing!  

 

Angelica watched the mermaid in annoyance, but also a touch of excitement.  She had to admit, it was nice that  _ this one _ was moving along fairly quickly and so naturally.  She hadn’t needed to interfere.   _ Yet _ .  This would be here easiest  _ harvest _ !  Which was fortunate.  All she needed was one more…

 

The sea witch wrapped on of her tentacles around the overly energetic mermaid’s tail and tugged him back to reality and to her.  “Calm down, I said.  There is no point in getting overly excited about humans, as I’ve said before.  Especially one doing something as mundane as swimming.”

 

Alex frowned, “But it’s unusual for humans to swim under the water.  They usually swim at the surface.  You yourself said so, Ma’am.”

 

“I did indeed.  But humans have invented a new device that allows them to say under the water for longer and at deeper depths.”

 

“You mean the elixir?”

 

“No,” Angelica pointed at the mirror, with its twisting shapes and colors.  “This is like a shell of a crab that the humans crawl inside.  They crawl inside and walk right into the sea with more ease and less pain than that elixir of your dear Thomas’s.”  The ease part was a lie; the witch had to admire the scientists for coming up with such an invention.  But sweet ignorant Alex didn’t need to know that.  He only needed to know was, “One day humans will be able to simply come and go from the ocean floor to their streets and you will be stuck only at the waterline.”

 

“I’ve been on the surface!” Alex objected indignantly.

 

“Were you referring to the times you have been picked up and placed in bathtub at the convenience of humans?” Angelica smirked at the blush that crept onto the mermaid’s cheeks.  “Or the time you nearly died wrapped in seaweed on shore?”  The look of hurt that crossed the boy’s face was nearly worth the sea itself.   _ Nearly _ .

 

“Well, maybe,” the mermaid seemed to clutching at loose concepts in his mind, “Dr. Adams will make an elixir for me.  So I can stay on land without water.”

 

Angelica threw her head back and laughed, partially an act but there was humor to be found in the mermaid’s naivete.  “Imagine!  Them wasting time on that!  So you can flop around a stone floor like a caught cod!  It would be a pathetic sight!  You wouldn’t be able to do anything.  Just….,” she trailed off into laughter.  When she had ‘composed’ herself she looked back at Alex.  As she predicted the mermaid looked deflated and near tears.  She made her voice soft and comforting.  Almost motherly.  “Does the surface mean so much to you?  Does this  _ Thomas _ mean that much to you?”

 

Alex nodded.  He had never felt this way before.  Watching Thomas slowly lose air, and leaving the pool after their time at sea had been painful.  They were once again divided by that unspoken barrier of circumstance.  And the idea of Thomas being able to come and go to a place that Alex could not even survive, it felt like a knife in the chest.  

 

The sea witch smiled.  Now she had him.  “What if I told you, I can make you human for a time?  So you can be with your dear Thomas?”

 

The mermaid’s head jerked up.  “You can?!”

 

“Of course!”

 

“Have you done it before?”

 

Angelica glanced at the back of the cavern to where her eels wrapped themselves around one another in never ending knots.  “Three time in fact.  I only do it for those poor unfortunates who truly need to see humanity.  And all three returned to the sea in the end.  And to me.”

 

Alex, like the three ‘poor unfortunates’ before him, tugged at her pleadingly.  “Oh please!  Please!  Make me human!  Just for a day or so!  I swear I won’t ask for more!”

 

“Oh, I’ll do you one better silly thing.  I’ll make you human for a whole week.  Under a few  **conditions** , naturally.”  

 

“Conditions?”

 

“Oh yes.  Do you expect me to peddle my gifts for free?  Remember what I have taught you;  **everything has a price** ,” Angelica swam further into the cavern and retrieved a small cauldron.  She placed a jewels and pearls in it as well as kelp and coral, talking all the while as she went.  “Consider it collateral, if all goes well you may have it back once you are done.  If you can prove me wrong about humans.  If, and mark my words  _ when _ , I am proven right I’ll even accept it back.  I’ll just take what I have always asked for.  Isn’t that fair?”

 

Alex watched Angelica move around the cavern hesitantly.  “What do I…”

 

“You are not giving up much.  You won’t even miss it!  What is a voice when you get legs in return?”

 

“My voice?!”  Alex grasped his throat as though he could grasp it.  “I-”

 

“Want legs.  Want to be human.  Want  _ Thomas _ ,” Angelica placed the cauldron of ingredients in front of the mermaid.  “Well I am offering you that.  For the small token of your voice.  Go to the surface and get proof that humans are capable of love, and gain your voice.  I’ll let you keep your legs if you wish.  But, if after one week you find that humans are what I always said.  If you find them wretched horrible liars and cruel beings undeserving, then I will come and collect you.

 

**_“You and your broken heart”_ **

 

_ Have we ever told you about the girl who wished for the ocean?  _

 

_ How she traded her heart away for it?   _


	11. The 'Man' in the Basement

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember you can ask or comment anything here or at my tumblr (red-shadow-wolf-19)

“If I remember the story correctly, she asked for a mirror first,” George said, leaning back and crossing his arms in thought.  “One that can see the possible futures.”

 

“No, no!  It was definitely crown first!  Then a scepter, then the mirror, then a dress, then the ocean,” Franklin leaned from his chair, ticking the items off on his fingers with his pipe.  

 

“I never understood the dress,” Martha said from her knitting.  “I mean understand vanity, but to ask for a dress-”

 

“If I recall it was supposed to transform her into anyone she wished,” Adams said thoughtfully, whittling a small figurine the woman.  He held it up show his progress to the young freckled apprentice who seemed pleased.  The Washingtons, Laurens, and the scientists were all gathered upstairs around a communal fire.  Thomas had forgone the basement for once, so cold from his swim (and far too excited to be around the mermaid for long periods of time).  He sat on the floor enjoying the fire, and even the usual fairy tale being debated.

 

“Transform into anyone, what nonsense,” the woman grouched.  “Should have turned her into a decent human being.”

 

“You have heard of this story, Mrs. Washington?” Laurens asked from his place on footstool between Adams and George.

 

“Oh, the players in town used always to put on a production of it when our Daniel was a boy.”  There was a pause, as though even saying one of her dead children’s names was too much.  Then, “Now all they do is political melodramas.  All the young want to talk about these days in politics.”

 

“Oh, I completely agree with that sentiment,” Franklin’s sat back.  “Before we was interested in science, our dear Thomas wanted to be politician.”

 

The apprentice whipped around to face the tall man on the floor, holding a mug of cider to him as though it would defend him from the other.  “YOU wanted to be a politician?!”

 

“Don’t act like it’s completely unheard of!” Thomas said defensively.  “My father was a well connected lawyer, and knew enough people to get my foot in the door.  When I finally told him I wanted to be scientist he was disappointed,” furious, angry, wrathful, “but he used his same connections to get me into the best university to study.  Then I heard Dr. Franklin speak and began researching mermaids and he-”

 

“Like so many, took insufficient data to mean no data.  Trust me, Franklin and I encountered that more than enough times in and out of academia,” Adams smoothly interrupted.  “And now we do have data.  And gaining more and more by the day.  Wait until those philistines see-”

 

There was a violent splash from the basement, thud, and the sound of violent  **coughing** .

 

“Has Alex ever coughed?” Laurens asked into the sudden silence.

 

George and Martha looked at one another in shock.  “No,” the said together.

 

Another splash, and more coughing.

 

George was out of his in an instant, leaving the room for a moment.  When he returned seconds later, he held two muskets and a pistol.  He handed one of the muskets to Laurens, who was off the footstool with a set jaw.  

 

“Is violence really the answer?” Franklin asked, paling at the sight of the weapons.

 

“If necessary,” Adams affirmed, taking a poker from near the fireplace.  

 

Thomas was up as well, fear ice cold in his heart.  Was someone trying to hurt Alex?  Did they know about him?  He could almost follow the logic; a hurt mermaid could cry a mint.  Imagine a hurt mermaid in captivity.  Jefferson took the pistol from George and cocked it.  No one, was going to hurt Alexander.

 

They walked to the basement door in a line.  George first, after all this was his property, then Thomas and Laurens battling for second behind him.  Adams and Franklin came next, Adams looking almost intimidating with an eagle eyed glare and poker.  Franklin, no so much, who had chosen the ‘weapon of the mind’ an rather old and heavy dictionary.  Finally came Martha, who held a pan, but looked too close to tears to many use in a fight.

 

Down the stairs they went in this strange heard, to the barely lit basement.  They could hear the unsettling noise of lapping water, still trying to calm itself after splashing.  And they could hear panting.  Someone was trying to catch their breath, desperately trying to pull air into their lungs, calming themselves.  In the low light they could make out small figure on the floor hunched over, facing away from the pool.  The person seemed to regain a sense of composure and tried to stand.  They fell with a thud, not hard thud, onto their backside.  They only made a sharp intake of breath to indicate pain or discomfort.

 

“SHOW YOURSELF YOU SON OF BITCH TRESSPASS-” George had ran down the stairs, musket already in the ready position.  He had just come to the man, pointing at the figure when he had stopped short.  His arms went slack and his voice failed him.  He spluttered at the figure.  He knelt beside him.  

 

“SIR!” Laurens followed his master, followed by Thomas.  The apprentice go there first and immediately dropped his musket.  “H-h-how?”

 

Thomas quickened his pace and ran the rest of the way to where the two were blocking the individual on the floor.  He felt his entire body go slack.  His head began to spin.

 

“Alex?” 

 

The small mermaid, looked up at the humans with a large grin and guileless eyes.  He wriggled his new toes and knocked his knees together wincing at the odd pain that shot up his legs.  He giggled, silently.

 

He kept giggling all through the bath that Mama drew for him.  It was different than being in the basement.  For one the water was not sea water.  Alex found that as a human, seawater hurt his eyes, nose, and made his tongue and throat feel weird awful if swallowed.  Which he had when he was ‘pushed’ from Angelica’s cave after the spell.  

 

But no, ‘bath water’ and ‘drinking water’ were different.  They came from a ‘well’.  And it took an hour or so to prepare the bath, in which time the scientists had examined him in a dumbfounded shock.  Well, Frankin had examined him.  Adams had found the empty beaker of elixir and had concluded (as Angelica had assured Alex he would) that the mermaid had found a way to get to it and drink it.  “And apparently, for mermaids, the elixir...does...this.”  Thomas had just sat and watched Alex be examined in silence.  The younger man had caught his eye a few times, and he had smiled reassuringly, but he would return to looking shellshocked a few moments later.

 

Once the scientists were done, Mama had made them bring Alex upstairs so he could take his bath.  The once mermaid had yet to get a handle on walking so Laurens and Thomas had walk in front and behind him as he wobbled his way up.  He had nearly collapsed when he left the basement from happiness and not realizing that the stairs had ended.  He wanted to run all around the house and touch everything, but Papa led him to the tub and told him if he was going to be on land he needed a bath.  Mama had agreed with him, saying Alex could use her nice soap.  Alex wasn’t sure what any of this met, but just smiled and allowed himself to be lowered put in a tub once again, noting that the water was really really warm and full of what looked to be sea foam.  

 

He could hear the scientist talking with Papa in the other room (there was another room!) all the while he and Mama cleaned up.  

 

“How long will he be like this?” Papa asked, sounding worried.

 

“I-I don’t know.  It’s been an hour, and who knows how long he was in the basement before we found him.  It looks...like he is stuck like this until,” Franklin trailed off.

 

“Until?”

 

“Until he gets another elixir, something to reverse it,” Thomas’s voice sounded strange, like he didn’t know if he was happy or not.

 

“How long will take to make another elixir?” That was Laurens, sounding almost scared

 

“If he had not drank so much of the previous one, I would say about two days.  Just to boil off some of the sodio- it doesn’t matter.  I have to work everything from scratch now,” Adams sounded very tired.  “It should take me a week, all things considered.”

 

“And what do we do, for that week?” 

 

“Time to get out of the bath, Alexander,” Mama said, bringing him back to this room with and the ‘bath’.  Apparently bathing meant rubbing soap into one’s scales (skin?) and hair.  Alex had found his feet (feet!) were really ticklish, as well as the back of his knees (knees!).  He could not move his legs as well as his tail, but once he got into an upright position, they could support him pretty well.  Mama had told him he had to clean himself from belly button to his knees.  He had not understood why.  She had seemed embarrassed by that part of his body.  Franklin too had seemed uncomfortable with it during the examination, noting to Adams, “Male.  Definitely male.”  Even now, when she had him stand out of the tub, she held a large fabric in front of her face.  Was there something wrong about having a penis?  Was it supposed to be kept a secret that you had one?  He would have to find a way to ask.

 

Mama dried him off with the piece of soft fabric, which she called a towel.  Apparently humans preferred to be dry, and made things to keep them dry.  Then she helped him get ‘dressed’ for bed.  “Papa’s nightshirt will have to do, though it is far too big on you.”  Alex didn’t understand but just smiled as the white cloth was put over his head and his arms went through the tubes on either side.  

 

He and Mama entered the ‘other room’ where Papa, Franklin, Laurens, Adams, and  _ Thomas _ were still talking in low voices about what to do during the week.  They all stopped when the ‘mermaid’ entered.  

 

Alex smiled, not feeling the collar of the night shirt fall down his shoulder and reveal bronze skin.  Thomas blushed and looked down at the mug cider he had been given during the discussion.  Adams slapped his forehead.

 

This was going to be a long, if not interesting, week.


	12. First Breakfast

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember you can leave a comment here or stop by my tumblr (red-shadow-wolf-19) and leave an ask/comment there.

Alex was thankful that night that that he didn't have a voice; he would have kept the whole house (house!) awake with his laughter.  Mama and Papa had made up a bed for him in front of the fire from a cot, blankets, and pillows.  It had taken a bit of patience on their part to explain how to use the items in question, but in the end it hadn't mattered.  Alex had kept kicking the blankets off to examine his legs.  

 

They were not at all like Papa, Laurens, or, Thomas’s legs, which were thick and muscular like an eel.  Nor were they dainty and brittle like Mama or Adam’s legs.  And they most certainly covered in blubber like Franklin’s.  He wondered why humans needed blubber if they made blankets to keep themselves warm.  And knees seemed very limited in motion.  He wriggled his toes and soundlessly giggled.  Still, one can't be so upset.

 

He must have finally dozed off in the night, hugging the soft plump pillow and gazing at the mesmerizing dying glow of the fire.  It was Mama who woke him with a little shake to his shoulder.  “Alex?  It's time to get up.  You need to get ready.”

 

The once mermaid stretched.  His mouth felt something between dry and wet, and his eyes seemed to have gathered sand in the middle of the night.  He rubbed them and yawned.  He looked up confused at the woman, conveying the question with his eyes.

 

“Thomas and Laurens convinced Papa and those who last night that you should get to see the town for your week on land.  It's not the city, but it's something.”

 

Alex was up in an instant, still wobbly on his feet.  He hugged the woman excitedly, bouncing on the tips of his new toes.  She lead him upstairs to where John was waiting, standing by a pile of more fabric.  He stared at the pile and the two humans in confusion

 

“You need to get dressed if you want to go into town, silly!” John teased as Martha left the bedroom, shutting the door with a chuckle.

 

This dressing and undressing business still baffled Alex.  Was it for protection?  For warmth?  Why did everyone look away or uncomfortable when he was without them?  They hadn’t made a fuss when he had tail, so for god sakes why now?  And why so many layers, in such specific order?!  First ‘underpants’ which John insisted were clean despite being an older pair of his (and why call them a pair?).  Then socks on the feet, which the former mermaid had to admit he liked very much.  After that was another shirt, which was different than the nightshirt being that it was smaller and a cravat to hold it in place.  Then pants.  Alex found he was unsure his feeling on pants.  They seemed too tight in some areas for his liking.  He looked at the tan thing and back to John in disbelief.  Do humans really wear this?  

 

“All human men where those!  And a few women too!  You’ll get used to them,” the apprentice said with a laugh.  He held up a bronze colored ‘jacket’.  “Now you have to be careful with this, alright?  This was Mrs. Washington’s son’s, and she is letting you wear it.”

 

Alex nodded, in awe of the dark buttons and how it draped in the back over his waist.  Unlike the night shirt, this jacket fit him.  He could see himself in a mirror that was in the room as John helped him into ‘boots’.  He looked, as though he had always been human.  If felt right.  Yet, it also felt as though something was missing.  Some essential element.  He pushed this aside.

 

With John’s help he ‘combed’ his hair (the beginning of the process had been murder and Alex nearly bit the other boy in retaliation for the pain, but the end was worth all of it for the feeling that was sent down to this toes) and tied it back.  Apparently, this ‘was the style’.  

 

“Ready for breakfast?” John asked when they were done.  He clarified when he received only a bewildered look in response.  “Are you ready for some food?”  That got an eager nod.  He was ready to try ‘land’ food.

 

Thomas for his part had slept just as fitfully as Alex had.  He had tossed and turned in his cot and tried not listen for the shuffle of blankets that was the little mermaid.  His body and mind, however, seemed to be some conspiracy to make him feel like an adolescent again, encountering his first brush with sexuality.  The small bare shoulder, the big soft brown eyes, and the long dancer legs (not to mention the flash of what was between those legs) had been enough to nearly embarrass himself several times in the night.  If it hadn’t been for the occasional snore from Franklin and Adams talking in his sleep (“Saltpeter...no I didn’t forget the pins Abbey…”) he would have ‘fixed’ the problem without a second thought.  Instead he rose as soon as there was ribbon of pink in the sky and took a cold quick bath in the used water from last night.

 

Now nursing a slight headache and his heart pounding, he sat, waiting for Alex.  And here he was; bronze tailored coat, ivory cravat, and hair drawn away from his face brought out his eyes and skin.  The pants and boots showcased his legs well, though the boots added little to his height.  Thomas felt his mouth go dry.  He took a drink of the tea he had been sipping.

 

Alex sat down beside Thomas and grinned.  He wished he could say something, a question about what pants or about why humans call it the morning meal ‘breakfast’ or what oatmeal was and why Mama said she had added extra maple syrup for him.  He just settled for pointing at the weird small shovel like object he had been handed, trying to convey the inquiry.

 

Thomas got the hint.  “It’s a spoon.  You use it to eat,” he took the ‘spoon’ in question, dipped it in the ‘oatmeal’, and brought a small glob to Alex’s mouth.  “Open.”  Alex did and the spoon was thrust into his mouth.  It took him a bit of explaining, and laughter, to understand that he had to close his mouth around the food and drag it off the utensil.  The oatmeal was very very sweet and soft.  It slightly burned his tongue, but after a few more demonstrations from Thomas, Alex was had gotten the handle of eating it.

 

“Do you think it’s wise to give him food that he wouldn’t normally be able to eat?  I mean, what if he does go today into down and starts changing back.  Would his natural body be able to handle it?”Adams asked, watching the boy shovel good into his mouth, only pausing to catch his breath.

 

“I don’t see the harm,” Franklin said as Alex was offered his first cup of fresh water to drink.  “If he was going to suddenly change back, do you not think he would have done it last night?”

 

“God, that would have been horrific!”

 

The old man hummed as the former mermaid finished the cup with satisfied almost inaudible sigh.  “I’m more concerned with his damaged vocal cords.”

 

“Well, if we assume that the elixir did to an entirely different degree what it does in humans, Alex’s lungs are too busy having him process air to work his voice.”

 

Alex was pushed away his bowl and the cup, now empty.  He smiled broadly at Mama, who simply smiled back understanding the ‘thank you’ that was being expressed to her.  The former mermaid turned to Thomas, his eyes expectant.

 

“She told you, didn’t see?” the scientist asked with a raised eyebrow and a smirk.  

 

An overly eager nod that made the ponytail buck.  

 

“Well, I suppose once I finish my tea we can head out.” he teased, bringing the cup to his lips and sipping slowly.  He was surprised, but not offended, when Alex yanked the tear from him and drank the little that remained in one gulp.

 

“I think you’re done,” George said with a chuckle.

 

“I suppose so,” Thomas said, smiling at the eager look Alex gave him.

 

Martha packed them a small sack full of money, scarves (another piece of clothing that everyone seemed to find as ridiculous as Alex did, and a piece of slate with chalk.  “You know how to write, or at least enough to for Thomas to understand.  You need to ask him questions and tell him if something goes wrong”

 

Alex looked over to Papa and Laurens confused.  Why weren’t they coming?

 

Papa saw the question and smiled fondly.  “We work, my little guppie.  And how am I to explain you, hmm?”

 

‘Explain him?  What did that mean?’  The mermaid frowned but no one seemed like they needed to elaborate.  Angelica’s voice came back to him, as though she was right in his ear.   _ You are just their baby from the sea.  The  _ **_thing_ ** _ they keep in the basement.  The  _ **_thing_ ** _ they brought people to poke and prod.  You may have agreed, but what if you hadn’t?  Would they have respected your wishes?  Or would brought them in, regardless of your feelings? _

 

Alex shivered, suddenly feeling cold and heart felt too heavy for his chest.  No one noticed, though.  They were all lecturing Thomas about being mindful of the mermaid and making sure he ate (but not too much) and making sure he doesn’t get into too much trouble (but make sure he has fun) and note any abnormalities (as if there was anything normal about a mermaid suddenly becoming a human).  

 

When they finally turned back to him, all of them smiling as Martha came forward with a ‘hat’ and placed it on his head, he was finally once again optimistic and a warm light feeling spread into his belly.

 

After all, he was going into town!

 

_ With Thomas! _


	13. The Town

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember, feel free to comment here or at my tumblr (red-shadow-wolf-19)
> 
> Homophobic slur is used in this chapter. Be warned

Alex was just as fast as he was in the sea.  He bounded ahead of them like a dog on the hunt, only stopping when he realized they did not share his pace.  Thomas couldn't help but smile at how the little man would turn back with the such impatience, as though they were keeping him from a very important meeting.  Then, as soon as they were in range, the mermaid was off again at full gallop.  He tripped at one point, only to pop up once more with seemingly twice as much energy.  He was relentless.

 

When they finally reached the hill that overlooked the town, the boy stopped.  The way he looked at the village, one would have thought it was the eighth wonder of the world, not a cookie cutter seaside town of thatch and stone houses.  George only nodded at his adopted and son, he and his apprentice walking down the hill into Providence as though it was nothing.  Alex watched them go, as stunned as Thomas has been the first time he has seen the mermaid.

 

He stopped beside the shorter man.  “Ready? ” 

 

Alex turned to him, eyes and smile wide.  He didn’t really have to nod for Thomas to know the answer.

 

It took a concentrated effort not to run past Thomas and into the small shops and homes of the town when they reached the high street.  He looked around with unconcealed wonder; the ‘buildings’ jutted upward in all different sizes surrounding a small clear area with a large gray stone man on pedestal.  Alex raced to see him first, barely reading the small plaque inscription.  The stone man did not look at him or make any sign of acknowledgement, his eyes still looking upward to the sky.  Thomas had to grab his coat tails to prevent him from climbing the man to see what he was staring at.

 

“Humans do not climb statues.  Well, maybe if they are children or drunk, but you are neither!”

 

Alex frowned and took put the slate and chalk.  ‘What is deruncak?’

 

“D-r-u-n-k.  And it’s something you are not.  Now do you want to see the courthouse, church, or town museum first?”  The mermaid’s head looked to be spinning.  “The museum and the courthouse are attached to one another, so might as well go there first.  Come along.”  He placed a hand on the small shoulder and stirred the younger man away from the square, recieving a few curious and suspicious glances from the townsfolk.

 

To be honest, Providence’s museum was nothing spectacular; it was a one room building with a painting of the founding of the town,  few old relics from the ‘Mother country’ and local curiosities.  The only thing of true merit in Thomas’s eyes were the painting and town constitution beneath it.  But looking at it with Alex, whose silent enthusiasm spoke volumes, the museum was transformed into one of the world’s best exhibits tailored made for the two of them.  Alex took in the painting, every inch, every detail, for fifteen minutes before he leaning over and reading the constitution with all the seriousness of lawyer preparing a case.  Each new item was ten minute discussion, delivered by chalk and slate, about the name, spelling, function, and practicality of the thing in general.  The old curator who ran the ‘museum’ watched them fondly.  The only other visitors looked on disapprovingly.  Thomas was having the time of his life.

 

The courthouse and church were even better.  Since court was in session, they had had to go to the gallery which meant stairs.  Which meant Thomas nearly died from laughter watching Alex walk up them.  He not quite mastered the going ‘up’ with his new legs, and coupled with excitement, he appeared to be a newborn horse learning to walk.  The few people they passed made sounds of concern but didn’t stop to help.  Small town; everyone helps everyone they know.  

 

Watching Alex listen to the proceedings was just as hilarious.  It happened that they had come on a day of open speeches about the now approved tax on the county.  Something that many in the town seemed to resent.  They intoned to the mayor, pastor, town committee, and those assembled about the burden such a tax would impose on them, how many felt they would not be able to provide adequately for their families or themselves.  A few ladies with babes in arms pleaded for someone to think of the children.  Normally, such a meeting would be background dribble to Thomas.  

 

But the mermaid made it a thousand times more interesting.  

 

He leaned over the railing, yelling (well, pantomimed yelling) at the crowd below, who for the most part ignored him.  It was the gallery that had to watch the well dressed new young man scream in angry silence down at the committee and his companion try, through tears and giggles of mirth, to try to calm him.

 

“D-do try to calm down!  Yes I know they didn’t mention the roads or the schools.  And the farmers.  Yes they didn’t mention the farmers.  You can’t say that in front of lady, you sure as hell can’t say that about a lady!  No, I don’t know why you can’t say that in front one a lady, but I can give you several reasons you can’t say that about one.  Well, unless you know for certain-”

 

Needless to say they were asked ‘politely’ to leave.  Thomas was clutching his sides for breath while Alex fumed on the street, pacing furiously, still mutley debating and shouting.

 

Jefferson was about to suggest going to the church next, wondering if the architecture would be something the mermaid would enjoy when he noticed his companion being drawn away from him.  There was small stage set up on one part of the town square and few players were on it playing music for a small gathering.  The gathering was dancing along to the drums, flutes, and melody of a singer, all paired up into couples or groups.  Young men twirled pretty young maids so their skirts lifted and there was the briefest hint of skin.  Children developed a game of linking arms running into each other to break through, laughing as they all tumbled into the street.  An elderly couple swayed in each other's arms, lost in their own world.  All the while the singer sang, a large grin on his face at his bawdy little tune.

 

Alex stared in fascination for a time, afterall, he had never seen dancing.  Nor had he seen so many people enjoying one another.  And music, had he ever heard music?  Thomas was pondering that very thought when the mermaid grabbed his hand pulled him to the fray.  

 

At first it was an awkward mess; Alex still new to legs overly excited had no rhythm or clue what he was doing, and Thomas was too conscious of the eyes of several people on him.  Eyes that did not take to kindly to the two men dancing together.   _ Eyes that would tell his father.  Eyes that would laugh when his father pulls him away from from the other boy.  Eyes that would only ever look away when his father mentioned  _ **_his bride_ ** _. _  But then his eyes would meet Alex’s lovely brown and he would forget about them.  

 

They twirled and bounced, and skipped to the music.  A strange hybrid of waltz and jig.  It looked foolish, and most of the other dancers left the group in embarrassment, but those who stayed and the children took up the steps immediately as their own.  Thomas laughed for the both of them when the song finally ended, and the players and audience applauded one another in turn.  One young woman leaned over and kissed her beau on the cheek.  He blushed and then reached out and whipped her around so he could plant a large kiss on her mouth.  She swooned into his arms.  Alex watched in fascination.

 

The young man in question must felt Alex’s eyes on them, because he looked up at the mermaid and snapped, “What you looking at pervert?!”

 

Alex was taken aback, and looked at Thomas for help.  His name was Alexander.  Not Pervert.

 

“Yes, you pervert!” the man said, obviously mistaking Alex’s confusion of the word pervert for being confused at who the insult was being addressed.  “You looking to do something with my girl?  Or was it me, you faggot?”

 

“I don’t want him near me, Charlie!” the woman said, her voice shrill, nasally, and disgusted.

 

“He won’t go anywhere near you,” Thomas said, stepping in.  “He’s just..,” a mermaid who has never seen two humans act like this before, “foreign.  That’s all.”

 

“Foreign?” ‘Charlie’ questioned stupidly.

 

Alex frowned.  He had nearly lived ten years ‘in’ Providence.  He wasn’t foreign.

 

“Yes foreign,” Thomas assured the other man.  “He just doesn’t under the country’s customs.  And he’s mute besides that.  Which is why he has me.  His...guardian.”

 

“Guardian?” the woman asked skeptically.

 

“Are you two just parrots?  Yes, guardian!  Now leave us alone,” Thomas made sure the last sentence was said low with a note of warning.  Charlie and his girl looked at one another, each assessing the other’s willingness to continue harassing the pair.  They left, their eyes still giving the two disapproving glances.

 

“You handled that very well, my friend,” a voice from behind the scientist said.  He turned to find the singer had left the stage and came over to him and Alex.  He was looked similar to Jefferson, but his hair was pulled into the fashionable knot in the back of his head, giving he the slightest advantage on height.  He was more lithe and his face looked a tad younger, more immediate confidence.  And his voice spoke of an origin that was across the sea.  The singer smiled and bowed.  “I am Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, but to my friends I am simply Lafayette.”

 

“We aren’t friends,” Thomas said, quickly looking over at Alex.  He seemed more confused than anything, but didn’t seem worried.

 

“We could be though,” Lafayette pointed out with a grin.  “I could not help but watch your,” he glanced at Alex who cocked his head, “friend here.  I know it is hard to contain one’s self in public especially when has a jewel on their arm.”

 

Thomas blushed and looked around.  Thankfully no one was looking.  “I don’t know what impression you got, but I am just his-”

 

“It’s okay,” the singer assured Thomas with a knowing smile.  “You are among others.”  He looked back to the stage to where a large man leaned over a drum smiling at the trio.  The men shared a nod before Lafayette turned back.  “I am throwing a small, hmmm, party tomorrow night.” The foreigner passed a slip of paper.

 

“I-I don’t know if we can attend.”  He had dancing visions of his father in his mind, as well as the question of how was going to explain taking Alex out at night.

 

But Thomas could see and feel the excitement in the little mermaid’s face and the way he was excitedly nodding at Lafayette asking if he would like another song.  He could figure out something to tell them about why they were going out at night.  

 

_ They were going to out make Alex happy. _

 

_ And that was the truth.     _


	14. Human Error

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember to follow on tumblr (red-shadow-wolf-19) and leave an ask. Or feel free to leave a comment here.
> 
> Warning: There is some more homophobic language in this chapter.

It was hard to think of an excuse to go down into the basement.  Especially when you couldn't talk.  He had waited until after dinner, chicken and dumplings which was delicious, and slowly made his way to the old familiar door.  He slowly made his way down the steps, finding it was easier to make go down than up, and to the edge of what once had been his home.

 

It felt surreal to Alex that he was now **standing** over the pool and not floating in it.  He knelt in front of the water and reached a hand to touch the water.  It was so cold, and yet so familiar to him.  Had it always been cold and he never noticed?  The surface was cold too, with currents of hair that snuck and made him shiver.  Thomas had said it was the coastal breezes.  “Some beaches have warm breezes and some like this one are cold.  It depends on season or weather.  The city, well it varies on city to city what the weather is like.”  The mermaid had shivered a little more and Thomas had drawn out the scarf that Mama had packed to wrap around him.  It had helped, if only because the other was breath away.  Even now the thought of it made the Alex’s cheeks blush.

 

As he looked at his blushing reflection in the sea, the water swirled as though caught in whirlpool before it settled back.  In the now glittering water, his image had changed to that of Angelica, as clear in rippling waves as though she was right beneath the surface.  

 

She smiled at his shocked expression.  “Oh, don’t be shocked Silly thing!  I did say I was to check up on you.  And we have are appointment to keep don’t we?”  

 

Alex without thinking said the usual response of, ‘Yes, Ma’am,’ before realizing his voice was still gone.

 

There was a chuckle from the sea witch.  “I never said I was going to give you back your voice during these meetings, did I?  And I think it's for the best, don’t you?   You have a tendency to talk too much.”  The mermaid fidgeted in agreement.  “Now let's see about your first day, shall we?”  

 

The water shimmered a violent red and ghostly phantom limbs reached from the pool.  Alex shrank back from the pool, but he limbs were too quick, holding him in place by his head as third caressed his forehead.  The limbs retreated, the third clutching a silvery glowing thread.  Angelica appeared once more, she clutched the thread, smiling as she wove it between her fingers over and over again.

 

“Papa and Laurens had to work?  And couldn’t be there on your first day?  And you have to be explained?  Like you were something to be explained away?  A mistake to be forgiven?”

 

Alex frowned and shook his head.  He had been upset at first, yes, but Papa had made it up him by bringing home a new map.  He cared!  But if people knew about Alex being a mermaid…

 

“Then they would come for you.  Use you.  You’re an asset or treasure no one talks about,” Angelica voice was low, winding around the mermaid’s heart.  “That’s all you are to him and Mama.  Not their ‘Little Guppie’.  Not their son.  Just…”

 

Alex shook his head angrily.

 

The sea witch let that subject drop.  She knew the seed had been planted.  She continued to play with the memory.  “What a lovely day you had with _Thomas_.”  The boy nodded triumphantly, looking far too smug for her liking.  “Shame he is embarrassed to be seen with you.”  That made the mermaid look shocked.  “Do you know what a ‘faggot’ is?  Or a ‘pervert’?  Human men who mate with other human men.  It’s considered wrong, unnatural, sinful. Oh a few do it when they are young, for that is the way of the young.  To rebel.  But they always go with a woman in the end.  Being foolish in public like that with a man, making mockery of the courthouse, dancing like the idiot you are!  Thomas will smile to your face, because you are the pretty little thing cries diamonds, and leave you for a human.  You are just a science experiment that has forgotten its place.”

 

She watched with satisfaction as Alex listened and eyes began to fill with unshed tears.  Tears that began to fall and _ping_ on the ground.  Lovely sweet gems and pearls _plopped_ into the water and _thudded_ gently onto the mermaid’s lap.  

 

“It’s okay,” Angelica soothed, “I understand it is hard to hear and realize.  And if you wish to end this prematurely, I understan-”

 

_Splash!_  Alexander pounded the water with his open palm causing the image to distort and warp.  He looked defiantly at the rippling sea witch in the waves.

 

“That was rude, Alexander!  You **know** how I feel about rude-”

 

_SPLASH!_ An even more defiant slap, making the boy’s palm hurt from the impact.

 

“I will let this slide for now, but I will not be so kind in the future.  You have had a busy day, but tomorrow I expec-”

 

**_SPLASH!_ **  And just like that, the sea witch was gone, and Alex was left nursing a sore hand.  

 

“Alex?  Are you down there?”  It was Mama at the top of the stairs, sounding worried.  Alex stood, pushing the jewels and pearls into the sea to hide evidence of his tears.  He walked to the bottom of the stairs so the light of the upstairs could cast down on him.  The older woman caught sight of him and smiled.  “There you are!  Dr. Franklin found an unused notebook and he gave it to us.  We want to read all about your day!”  

 

The mermaid grinned and walked up the stairs, still not fast as he would have liked.  He stumbled slightly at the top step but caught himself.  He looked sheepishly at Mama, trying to apologize for being so clumsy.

 

“Oh, Alex!  Everyone stumbles sometimes.  I’m going to tell you a secret,” she leaned in conspiratorially.   _“To err is to be human.”_

 

“And to smoke my fucking tobacco is a death sentence, get your own Franklin!” Adams growled, holding the pilfered snuff box in one hand and his cane in the other.

 

“I keep telling you, our boxes look so similar,” the old man said innocently.

 

“That’s bunk you skinflint.  You just don’t want to go out buy some more for yourself!”

 

“Is that the reason you do not share, John?”

 

Adams was about to retort when he caught sight of Thomas.  The young man had returned from town like a moonsick calf; all smiles and doey eyes.  He had sat so close to Alexander through dinner that the older man would not be shocked if their legs had not been intertwined under the table.  And the mermaid was not completely oblivious; the shy glances, the silent quirks of the lips that indicated a laugh, and flushed cheeks all pointed to that.  And now, in the small room in the back where once they had all gathered to trade stories not a day before, Thomas was peering out crack of the door to peak at the Washingtons sharing a moment with their adopted son.

 

“Is there something ‘interesting’ Alex would be telling them that **we** should know?” Adams asked, raising an eyebrow.

 

Thomas jumped like an errant schoolboy.  His mind raced to coming back to the Washingtons’ home, placing the scarf around Alex’s neck so he wouldn’t shiver feeling the urge to lean over and kiss the boy.  But a gull squawked overhead and Alex looked up like up in fascination, and the moment passed.

 

He turned to the older man, twice as shy because of the cane.  “N-no.  Just wondered if he had a good time.  Outside, I mean.”

 

“Oh, come now Tommy!” Franklin said, jovially smoking his pipe (and Adams’s tobacco).  “Did you not see his face when he came back this evening?!  He looked like he had the time of his life!  Would have thought he had fallen in love the way he was bounding around here.”

 

The shorter man smirked, “I can hardly wait to see how you top it.”

 

Jefferson shifted uncomfortably, his eyes going to the crack of the instinctively.  He could see a strip of the scene in the other room: Alex bent over a journal scribbling like mad.  When he came to the end, the mermaid would carefully tear the paper from the journal and hand it to George who read aloud the story as the mermaid went back to writing at a breakneck pace.  He looked so serious when he was writing, but after each page was transferred over and was read his eyes were alight with fire and his hace was set in that determined smile he got when he was debating.  

 

“Tomorrow,” Thomas said, eyes still gazing at the mermaid, “I was thinking of showing Alex the stars from the shore.”


	15. The Unimportance of Stars

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Sexual Content ahead
> 
> I suck at writing sexual scenes
> 
> Feel free to comment here or on tumblr at red-shadow-wolf-19

Alex and Thomas left the next evening when the sky was a thin ribbon of pink in a sky of purple going inky black.  They had told everyone they were going to see the stars from the part of Providence.  George and Laurens had seemed skeptical, but had not objected.  Franklin and Martha had made noises about coming along, but decided to stay in.  Adams simply kept staring with that knowing look that made Jefferson uncomfortable, like a guilty child.  Alex seemed not to mind, though.  Innocence was bliss, as they say.

 

The town streets were empty when they arrived at the address of the ‘party’.  The location looked to be a private home converted into a dancehall.  The scientist looked over to the mermaid beside him.  He wore a similar outfit to the day before, but his coat was a bright yellow, so he stood out in the darkness.  He looked nervous, though when he gave the other a quick nod to show he was still wanting to do this.   Thomas swallowed, his mouth going dry.  He knocked on the door.

 

The door opened a crack and the sliver of a face could be seen, inspecting them.  The familiar foreign voice of Lafayette purred at them, “Password?”

 

“You didn’t give us a password.”

 

The door swung open.  The foreigner’s smile was broad as he waved a hand to welcome them inside.  “The best password, non?  Imagine the idiot who stands out here in the cold trying to think of some witty phrase.”  Lafayette frowned as the two stepped into the light.  “What are you two wearing?  Who dressed this one, his mother?”  He indicated Alex.

 

Alex nodded proudly and Thomas chuckled at the bemused expression that crossed the other man’s face.

 

“Well, that will not do for my party.  Fear not, I have some things upstairs that may fit you,” Lafayette said taking the mermaid’s arm and leading him away.  

 

“Hold on!” Thomas grabbed the smaller man’s other arm, pulling him back slightly.  “I don’t know what you are planning but-”

 

“I’m planning to make sure your date is pretty and doesn’t look so drab.  If you worry about his virtue, let me assure you that as lovely as he is I know better than to cut in on a couple.”  And the foreigner pulled Alex back towards him and through a door to another room.  

 

Thomas fumed but gritted his teeth, entering the larger adjoining room where music and laughter could be heard.  Men and women danced and sang to the sound of an out of tune piano and just as out of town singer.  They were all in colorful costumes (dresses, skirts, and tunics oh my!) or in what was considered passable states of fashion, was to say without coat and slightly open shirt.  There were several small couches on one wall were couples sat, blissfully unaware of the world as kissed like drowning victims fighting for air.  Jefferson there was little thrill to see men dance so freely with other men and women with women uncaring of the world.

 

He walked around awkwardly, occasionally smiling and waving off offers to dance from the other guests and avoiding the few who tried to offer him drinks.  Parties had never been his thing.  When he was younger, they had been excuses for his father to bring his friends over to discuss Thomas’s future.  At university they had distractions from study.  And now...now…

 

“Now your date is ready!” Lafayette called from behind him.  “Made not a peep of protest.”

 

“Well he’s mute so I should thing s-”  Thomas stopped short as turned around to face the foreigner and the mermaid.  Alex had changed from the bright yellow coat, tan pants, and white shirt into a green dress that brought out his bronze skin.  The dress had a modest bust line that was ruffled giving the illusion of cleavage.  The sleeves were long, stopping just at the mermaids small wrist.  The hem was long as well, ending just beneath the bare ankle of the now barefoot man.  Alex’s hair was once again pulled away from this face but his time in a large green bow that matched the rest of this ensemble.  The mermaid smiled as he stepped toward the scientist, a nervous yet confident expression his face.

 

“Do I know how to dress one to impress, or what?” Lafayette asked.  

 

The pair didn’t hear him.  They didn’t say a word.  There was nothing left to say to another human being.  There was just them and the off tune melody from a piano, which suddenly might as well as been a fully trained orchestra.  

 

Thomas lead Alex to a small unused patch of dancefloor, taking the small waist and hand of the mermaid.  They began with a simple but jumbled box step, feet treading shoe and miscommunication in beat.  But they mastered and soon they were dancing around their forgotten piece of floor.  The taller man laughed for the both of them as he twirled the mermaid, his face full of joy and dress fanning out around him.  

 

Alex collapsed back onto the scientist with a gale of silent laughter, looking up breathless.  His eyes were met with such an intense gaze that he looked away for a moment for looking back.  Brown met cinnamon, and lips parted in silent invitations and prayer.

 

“Want to go somewhere?  Just the two of us?”

 

An eager nod.

 

They picked their way through the dancers and the servers, past Lafayette dancing with the large drummer, past the couches of other lovers near in the same state as them.  They found a small room that once may have been a tiny study, now just an empty room with a large bay window and looked out onto the sea.  Someone had opened it just a crack so the sound of waves and the smell of salt and spray perfumed the air.  There was still the sound of music and partygoing, but seemed distant here and the ocean seemed somehow closer and more present.  Just them, and the ocean.

 

Thomas took Alex into his arms, admiring the wiry strength he felt.  He drew him close, admiring the small flush of the cheeks, the half-lidded eyes, the pink lips that parted instinctively for him.  The mermaid tasted of summer air and sunrises and new beginnings.  Of toes in wriggling wet sand and the large wave that brings you back to shore.  Of laughter and promises kept and secrets made.  

 

To Alex, Thomas tasted of spring winds and sunsets and stories told.  Of the current that were warm and of calming gentle waves that beckon you further into the ocean.  Of the tears of joy, the best page in the book, and that crescendo of a song.

 

They kissed, Jefferson exploring every inch of Hamilton he could reach before they broke for air, both panting.  

 

“I-I want to do something,” Thomas’s mouth could barely cooperate with the taste of the kiss dancing on his lips.  “But if it makes you uncomfortable or scared, you have to get me to stop.  Scratch me.  Hit me.  Kick me.  I don’t want to hurt you.  You have to know that.  I don’t want to hurt you.”

 

Alex looked at the man in confusion, partially because he didn’t know what going to happen but also because his mind was still floating in an ocean that the kiss had created.  He nodded dumbly all the same though.

 

He was gently pushed into the wall and told to spread legs slightly.  The mermaid did so feeling a strange anticipation coil in his belly next another warm electric feeling a little lower.  He watched in fascination as Thomas sung to his knees before him, their eyes still locked, and lifted the dress hem to his tummy.  

 

The human smirked, “I’ll give that ‘Lafayette’ whatever his name is this, he knew how cumbersome undergarments would be in a situation like this.”

 

The mermaid gasped (or at least did the intake of breath required for it) at his penis.  It had gone from a soft somewhat useless piece of flesh to a hard throbbing thing between his legs.  It hurt slightly and it made him feel excited that the other was looking at it.  The anticipation was back and wished he could ask, no demand, that Thomas would do something.  He wasn’t sure what, but he wanted it so badly he could feel it with his entire being.

 

And Thomas did do something.  He leaned over kissed the very tip.  Alex was suddenly very thankful for the wall.  At first was just little kisses, sweet along the tip and the underside down to the testacles below that was followed by a slow leisurely lick back up the shaft following a vein.  He grinned up at the panting flushed debauched mermaid giving a soft kiss to the head again before swallowing him to the root.

 

If he had been able, Alex would have moaned in ecstasy.  He instinctively wove his fingers through the mess of curls what was Thomas’s hair, bunching the dress up as well and rode waves of pleasure.  

 

For the human, he hummed and sucked the lovely cock.  This was not Jefferson’s first time doing this, and in the past he had had ‘larger’ and definitely louder lovers.  But Alex’s skin, his taste, the barely audible pants, and fingers were all things he was coming to find that he never wanted to live without.  And when Alex finally came with silent shout he relished in the afterglow of the small man as he slid down the wall to join him on the floor.  

 

He held him in his lap, whispering calming and loving things into the other’s ear.  He kissed with reddened lips the now sweaty forehead and brushed aside loose strands of hair.  When they had finally calmed down, Thomas needing to calm his own wayward erection, they made their way to the party and made their way to leave.  Lafayette just grinned knowingly at them as he handed back Alex’s clothes offering them a place for the night.  Thomas refused.  God it was tempting, but he could only imagine the hell to pay when they returned.  Alex changed in a closet alcove, Thomas keeping watch, though no one seemed to be looking at the small man except for him.

 

They left holding hands, making their way slowly back to the Washingtons.  They stopped on the hill above the town to indeed stare at the stars, but they seemed so inconsequential in comparison to one another.  As they neared the once observation tower, Thomas realized he had forgotten something.  Something important.  His stopped them short of the door and turned the mermaid to him.  Alex looked up at him with those shining brown eyes that put stars and diamonds to shame, waiting for the words that they both felt but only one could express.

 

“Alex, I wanted to tell you.  I should have told you before..but...That doesn’t matter.  I wanted to tell you I-”

 

“There you two are!” The door had swung open to reveal Adams, pipe in hand and dressing gown under his robe.  His smile was knowing and mischievous like a little gremlin.  The moment fled.  “Your parents have been worried sick about you!  They nearly sent Laurens out looking for you two.  You’re lucky Franklin finally caught on to me distracting them or you two would be in quite the pickle.”

 

“We got distracted,” Thomas said, looking defiantly at the older man and giving Alex’s hand a little squeeze.

 

Adams raised an eyebrow.  “I’m sure of that.  Now that you’ve had your fun, it’s time to say your goodnights.”

 

The younger scientist blushed but said nothing.  He turned to his small companion, self conscious of the now present audience they had.  “I hope you had a nice time.”  It sounded so childish and inadequate.  But still the mermaid grinned shyly and leaned over and planted a kiss on his cheek.  He watched as the other entered the home, smiling brightly in greeting to Adams as he passed.

 

The small man looked back at the younger, his face suddenly serious.  “I would normally not take much interest in your love life, but have you thought this through?”

 

“Don’t tell me you are one of those sanctimonious people who sit up there and say ‘if a man lays with a man or woman lays with another woman they should be cast to the Hellfire’ because if you are-”

 

“Don’t be ridiculous!  I’m a scientist and anthropologist!  I have seen hundreds of species where homosexuality exist!  I know of tribes where homosexual couplings are treated as sacred as we treat the wedded couple!  I have found it odd that this country does not accept the homosexuals but accepts blowhard politicians and ignorant plutocrats.  No my objection, Thomas, is not in Alex’s gender but his species,” Adams seemed to age as he spoke, each word now cutting into Thomas’s heart.  “In a few days, the elixir will be done and Alexander will once again be a mermaid.  And then what will happen?  You’re leading the boy down the road to heartbreak.”

 

“I’m not,” Thomas shook his head stubbornly, though the thought crossed had crossed his mind.   **This was not a fairytale, where with one magic wish, the problem could be solved** .       

 

Adams sighed heavily.  “Take a walk before you come inside and think what is best for you and for Alexander.”  

 

He left Thomas on the doorstep to the sound of crashing waves, the blowing wind, and  **three pairs of glowing eyes in the underbrush.**


	16. The Bride

Alex couldn't stop grinning.  Even when Papa and Mama scolded him for staying out late, he only smiled dreamily.  They dismissed him for bed, exchanging worried looks as their adopted son danced off to bed.  He didn’t go to the basement that night; he was to giddy to speak with Angelica.  He was nearly too giddy to sleep when he finally curled up in his cot and blankets.  The night was spent in his mind, endlessly dancing with Thomas, crashing into one another likes waves to kiss and hold one another.  They became one being, one perfect being and their lips and limbs tangled together and they never had to come up with air because it didn’t matter they had one another.

 

He woke before everyone, still grinning.  Well, he supposed, he would have to see Angelica now.  After all he had won the bet!  He had gotten proof that humans are capable of love.  He had felt it in Thomas’s embrace, tasted it in his lips, and heard it in his voice.  And soon, Alex would have his voice and would be able to speak, laugh, and tell Thomas the same. 

 

Still in his nightshirt, Alex crept down to the basement.  He had to truly sneak to see the sea witch.  True, he had never told Mama, Papa, Laurens, or even the scientists about his ‘friend’ per their agreement since he was nine, but he had never had to make such an effort to keep the woman’s identity a secret.  The pool was as it always was; still no matter the weather outside.  As peaceful and welcoming as a nursery.  

 

A part of him was going to miss being a mermaid.  His father, what he could remember of him, had been one.  Alex could remember a trident, a loud laugh, and large rough hands holding him.  His mother he could more clearly remember; her smile, her laugh, her voice, her hair, her voice.  All these things she had given to him, as well as the copper in his scales.  His father, his mother had liked to tell him, had scales so green that one would think it was made from emeralds.  Subconsciously, Alex ran a hand over his leg.  He would miss his scales, his parents legacy.  But he loved Thomas.  He loved the surface.  And he wanted to have both forever.

 

But the sea witch did not appear.  No whirlpool.  No glowing light.  No warping of his reflection to the woman.  Just his frazzled bed tousled image looking back at him with the same confused expression.  He frowned.  If he had had his voice he would have called for Angelica, but all he could do was slightly splash the water.  Still nothing.  Was she offended he hadn’t come last night?  He had missed meetings before, and she still welcomed him back.  Oh yes there was punishment, he could vividly recall them, but she had never ignored him.  Alex resorted to sticking his head into the pool of water.  The salt stung his human eyes and nose, and he holding his breath was something he had yet to learn but he looked around the pool for some sign of her.  No Angelica appeared or was there.

 

Suddenly he was being pulled back, gasping in surprise.  He coughed and spluttered as Mama draped a towel around his shoulders.  “What are you doing there, Alex?  Do you miss the water?”

 

Alex gave one last cough (no one told him that seawater burned!) and shrugged.

 

Mama frowned thoughtfully, “You’re not sure?  Well I supposed the town is very exciting, but I’m sure the sea has something just as wonderful.”

 

‘The sea doesn’t have Thomas,’Alex would have said.  Instead he just shook his head.

 

“Well let’s get you cleaned up and ready for another wonderful day then,” the woman chuckled, helping the boy to stand and leave the basement.  Neither noticed the ripples in the of the still unsettled water glow.

 

Once Alex had been cleaned up and dressed for the day, he bounded into the dining area.  He wanted to sit next to Thomas.  To hold his hand again.  To see his face.  Maybe when they leave they could kiss again.  Maybe…

 

But Thomas was not in the kitchen.  He frowned.  There was Papa reading the paper, Laurens studying a book on maps, Dr. Franklin tucking into his eggs and bacon, Dr. Adams pecking at his food as he read over several old journal entries.  No Thomas though, his chair glaringly empty.  

 

Alex walked over to Laurens and knocked on the table to get his attention.  The young man looked up at the mermaid, to receive a quizzical look and gesture at the empty seat.

 

“Oh, I don’t know where he is.  Never came in last night after you two went star gazing,” was the reply.

 

“Thomas needed to take a walk and think after last night, so I had him do just that,” Adams said, not looking up from his journal.  “I’m sure he came in sometime in the evening and went out early in the morning to the same.  He did have a lot to process.”

 

‘Process?  Process what?’  Alex forgot that he couldn’t speak and mouthed the words.  No one caught it though.

 

“I did hear him come back in sometime last night and go back out again,” Franklin confirmed, giving out a little bletch.  “I bet he’s in town now, gathering supplies for the elixir or more tobacco.”

 

“Thomas doesn’t smoke, nor does he know what we need for the elixir,” Adams said, giving the older man a glare from over the journal.  “Most likely he is just in the library, small as it is.  You’ll see, Alexander.  When you and I go into town, we’ll find him on the high street or the library.  Either way, he’ll have a book his hands and some excuse.”

 

But Alex and Adams didn’t see Thomas on the high street or the library.  Or the bookstore that Adams made a special detour to go see.  And with each passing hour, and no sighting of the young scientist, the mermaid seemed to deflate and look more and more depressed.  He couldn’t muster the energy to be excited by a horse or carriage or seeing Lafayette who was once again performing in the street.  He simply walked by it all, num his eyes searching every face for Jefferson, and coming away empty.

 

That evening too, when they finally got back home, Alex was distracted and distant.  Papa and Mama tried to get him to write about his day, but he only wrote two sentences.

 

_ Went to town.  Thomas was not there. _

 

He barely slept that night, listening for the sound of Thomas coming home.  Coming home to him.

 

He woke people talking in the kitchen.  At first he rolled over and put his pillow over his head to block the sound, until he heard a familiar voice.  Alex bolted upright and listened again.  First Mama, then Franklin, then...Yes!  That was him!

 

Alex bounded out of bed, uncaring that he was still in a nightshirt and ran into the kitchen.  He was vaguely aware of his adopted parents, the scientists, Laurens, but they were all secondary compared to Thomas!  Thomas, who stood there, so rigidly straight, unblinkingly, so emotionless next to…

 

The mermaid stopped short.  A young blonde woman with large brown eyes and slightly crooked toothed smile stood beside Thomas, their arms linked and her head resting on his shoulder.  She wore a light blue dress and little black shoes that were ever so dainty.  A faded pink ribbon was tied around her neck, holding a small overly innate pendant encrusted in pearls and gems.  She just smiled, nuzzling the scientists shoulder.

 

“I understand the sentiment of what you are saying, but helping someone should not involve throwing your career and colleagues away,” Franklin was saying, sounding more exasperated than Alex had ever heard him.

 

“Dakota was a family friend of mine and her family made an agreement with mine.  You must see that I have to honor it?”

 

“Honor it by giving her a reference for a job!  Ask your father to send to some money to her father!  These are all more reasonable than-” 

 

“Tommy and I were friends since we were kids!  Well, he was nearly grown when I came along but he was always around for the most part.  I always told Ma, always said, ‘Ma, you watch!  I’m going to be Mrs. Jefferson!  Just you wait!’.  And now we’re getting married!”

 

Alex felt his chest go cold, like it had been plunged into the ocean.  Married.  He knew that word.  He understood that word.  It was one of the first human concepts he had learned.

 

“Ms. Shuck-” Adams began, imploringly.

 

“Cody,” the woman said, flashing a smile of imperfect teeth.

 

“I prefer Ms. Shuck,” Adams said humorlessly, “You have to see how um rather inconvenient it is to show up and demand that your childhood daydream honor some vague agreement, thereby making him end his career, which I assure you is about to make him incredibly wealthy and able to pay off whatever family debts you have if you wait.”

 

The woman shook her head, blonde curls bouncing.  “I could have sold this off if I just wanted money!” She indicated the pendant on the pink ribbon.  “But I love Tommy and I knew Tommy loved me!  He told me as much when I found him walking the other night.  We spoke all night and all the next day.  He said how he hated field work, how boring it was, how useless he felt all of it was.  That was getting tired of constantly being thinking of the silly ocean.  He missed the farm and home and me!  We rented a room in the inn and we hired a vicar.  We’ll be wed tomorrow evening!”

 

Every word was a punch to Alex’s gullet.  He felt his eyes brim with tears.  He turned away in case they fell.  He knocked into a cabinet with his knee and he knelt to clutch the pained limb.  The limb he had traded his voice for so he could be with Thomas.  Who had already loved another human, who had legs and a voice and a promise from him.

 

“Alexander, how long have you been up,” Martha rushed over away from the group still speaking to Jefferson to her son.  She caught sight of string of diamond tears on the boys cheek before he fled the kitchen and the tower.

 

Everyone looked around to Thomas.

 

Thomas didn’t even blink, his face perfectly blank.  Cody looked uncomfortable.  Her pendant twinkled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, that is genderbent Cody Shuck from SNL.
> 
> I was going to have it be either Thomas's historical wife, or Sally Hemmings, but this was more...fitting.
> 
> You can comment here or at my tumblr (red-shadow-wolf-19)


	17. The Wedding

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember, you can leave a comment here or on my tumblr (red-shadow-wolf-19)
> 
> Warning for slight homophobic language.

George found Alex in the tall grass of a hill, knees, feet, and left cheek caked with dirt.  There were strings of pearls and jewels around his face and as the tall man bent to scoop the boy up, a few stray gems fell from his eyes.  The mermaid struggled in the his arms as they walked back to the tower.

 

“It's okay guppie, it's okay,” George said soothingly.  The mermaid whimpered silently.  

 

The tower felt so cold, so alien when they entered.  It didn’t feel right.  Like a current that suddenly shifted directions.  Mama had made Alex a bath, saying it always made her feel better.  It made the young man sick to his stomach.  She scrubbed his hair, face and dirty knees, trying to tickle his toes like once she had done for her other son.  The mermaid looked at the digits miserably.  She dropped them back into soapy water.

 

Once he was redressed in a clean nightshirt and a pair of old pants, Alex was brought back to the kitchen.  He mutley whined at being back  **there** .  He could still hear that overly shrill voice resounding in his ears.

 

_ Married.  Married.  Vicar.  We spoke all night.  Silly sea.  Stupid boy.  They always go for a woman in the end.  A human woman who can speak.  Silly, stupid science experiment that cries diamonds. _

 

“Alexander,” it was Mama talking, sitting down beside him and placing a warm hand over his.  “Alexander, I know you care for Thomas.  And I know you’re hurt.  But it will be okay.  We told him he can’t stay here if he is going...hurt you.”

 

_ Care? That human doesn’t care.  He got a night of thrill, a story to tell.  And soon, it will just be another fairy tale. _

 

Papa sat on the other side of him, putting a hand on his shoulder.  “I told the other two that they have to finish their elixir for you, and then they have to leave.  This was a mistake.  Too much excitement.  Too much...pain for our Little Guppie.”

 

_ Guppie.  Baby.  Boy.  _

 

“That’s right,” the woman leaned over, smiling a little too brightly, “We’ll have things back the way they were before.”

 

_ Before.  Their baby from the sea… _

 

“It’ll be okay, Son.”

 

Alex abruptly stood, his eyes stinging with jewels.  He shook his head.  They couldn’t go back to before.  They couldn’t have everything the way it was.  He left to his small pile of blankets and cot, crawling inside.  His heart felt so heavy, so painful.  How to humans handle such pain?  

 

_ They don’t.  They just cause it.  It’s alright.  It will be okay.  Come back to the sea.  It wasn’t painful in the sea… _

 

The phrases repeated in an endless loop.   They repeated when Mama tried to get him up for dinner, which he refused.  They repeated when in the evening John tried to distract him by reading him the paper.  Alex turned over in his pile of blankets and his pillow over his head.  He was done reading papers.  He was done with dinner, lunch, and breakfast altogether.  The only human things that had any solace to him now were the blankets, pillows, and cot.  And even that was slowly losing its appeal.  That night, he imagined all he could hear was the gentle tempting lapping of the water in the basement.  He curled up into a ball and did his best to ignore such thoughts.

 

The mermaid had not realized he had fallen asleep until the was shaken awake and someone shouted, “Alexander!  Wake up, at once!  You are wasting precious time!”

 

He slowly opened his eyes.  It was around the afternoon, and the home was strangely quiet.  Well except for Adams leaning over his nest of blankets, looking impatient.  The man was dressed much in the same way they had met; travel coat, feathered hat, and simple yet still decorative cane.  And, of course, the ever present demeanor of impatience.

 

Alex glared at him, grabbing up his blankets in annoyance.  He was quite done being with scientists, at the moment.

 

The short man grabbed the blankets and pulled them out of the boy’s hands.  “Enough of this!  You are getting dressed and coming with me.  I intend to end this stupid farce.”

 

There was a cocking of the head and a silent question.

 

“The wedding, if you can call it that!  I disapprove of women being shamed into marriage for being pregnant, and I most certainly disapprove of men being shamed into marriage because of some vague financial blackmail.  Thomas hates his father, hasn’t spoken in years at my last count.  And some woman with a small slip of paper and sob story comes in...,” he sighed.  “This is my fault I fear.  I had told him to go for a walk after your evening together.  I had told him to think how such a relationship will go once you are back into your previous state.”  Another mute confused look.  “Once you are back to a mermaid, Alex.  My thought was that you would two would be able to have a healthy relationship, being from two different worlds.  But this was not my intended outcome.

 

“May I confuse something to you, Alexander?”  The boy nodded, kneeling on his cot suddenly very awake and less heavy hearted.  “I had hoped, that night, that when he came back after his walk, he would have woken me up to curse me.  To punch me.  Tell me I was being an idiot for worrying.  Gave me some silly speech about the power of love.  Because, God be damned, he does love you!  Any fool with eyes could see that!  The moment he saw you!  Thomas came to Franklin and myself, Alex, in much the same way you came to your parents.  He was in pain and orphaned, kicked out of his father’s home because of his intellectual pursuits and because of those whom he loved.  And since that day, I have looked upon him as a son.  And I will not have my son forced into marrying some harlot the love his life languished in bed.  Now get dressed!”

 

Alex was out of bed at once, his eyes shining with tears.  He hugged Adams, giggling inaudibly in his ear, a few pears falling onto his shoulder.  He ran to get dressed before he stopped short.  He looked back, slightly embarrassed.

 

“You still have trouble getting dressed, don’t you?”

 

A nod.

 

A sigh.  “And this is what charity gets you.  Come on, than.  But we must hurry!”

 

Together, they made short work of the dressing, Alex helping with the parts he could remember and Adams red faced the entire time at the shamelessness of the mermaid.  Finally they were out on the road, both at a breakneck pace.  Well, almost breakneck.  Alex was still confused by the layout of the surface roads and Adams despite being in good health, could not keep up with the mermaid’s agility.  But they made it to the church on the far side of town with time to spare.

 

Alex would have been taken with the how big the church was compared to tower nearly every other building in town, except maybe the courthouse, if he was not a on a mission.  Adams would have made a snide comment was ‘quaint’ in comparison to the churches in the city, if he wasn’t on a mission.  They both would have taken note that Martha, George, Laurens, and Franklin were in the pews with looks of silent resigned disapproval.  They simply entered.

 

At the altar was Thomas and Cody, hand in hand with the vicar.  The woman looking over the moon.  The man’s expression was blank, his eyes only looking at the woman.  The vicar didn’t stop reading from his book, “The sacred sacrament of matrimony is a union blessed by God the Almighty, with an order to be fruitful and multiply.  And to honor and cherish one another.”

 

Alex ran up the empty aisle, dodging Papa and Laurens as he went, nearly making it to the couple before there was shoud to “STOP” from the pastor.  He obediently did so, looking at Thomas who was now so close.  A few steps and he would be arm’s length.  A few more steps and he a breath away.  A moment away.  Alex’s heart burned.

 

“What is the meaning of this?!  Interrupting marriage vows!” the Pastor fumed.

 

“That boy has an objection to the proceedings!  This foolish masquerade!” Adams called, stepping forward.  The mermaid’s eyes were trained on Thomas.

 

The Pastor frowned.  “Well, he should have made earlier.  I wanted this girl,” he waved a hand to Cody, who looked terrified at Alex, “he should have spoken up sooner.”

 

“The boy is mute!” George called, out his seat to defend his son.

 

“And he’s not here for me, Sir,” Cody said, her voice trembled as she spoke.

 

That made the Pastor frown even more.  “I will not let a mute sinner disrupt this proceeding with his perversions  Nor anyone assisting this sin.  I must ask for you to clear the hall at once so this may continue.”

 

Alex shook his head and took a step towards Thomas.  He wasn’t going to leave.  Thomas loved him!  Adams said as much!  And if Thomas loved him, he would stop this.  He wouldn’t leave no matter how much the Pastor yelled.  Thomas had to look at him, to say something.  To explain this.  Say something!  Anything!  Alex screamed.  Only the sound of exhaling air.  

 

Thomas took no notice, his eyes fixed ahead of him.

 

Alex’s heart was like lead.  Cold, unfeeling lead.  Just too heavy for him.  A small sapphire formed at at the corner of his eye.    


 

“If this travesty of sin is done...what’s that in your eye boy,” the Pastor looked suspiciously at Alex, his  _ human  _ hand reaching out.

 

“NOTHING! Come along Alexander!  Enough of this,” Franklin said, hurriedly.  He, with the help of George and Martha, began to pull Alex out of the church.

 

“Stop!  What are you doing?  Unhand him!  Do you want  **this** to continue?!” Adams shouted, trying to grab ahold of the boy to lead him back to the altar.  He could see the hope leaving the boy with each step the group made.

 

“Do you want all our research to go for naught?!” hiss Franklin.  “Besides,” he nodded the couple, “the damage has been done.”

 

“TO HELL WITH THE RESEARCH!  THERE ARE MORE IMPORTANT THINGS!” 

 

“We are in a church, good Sir!” The Pastor cried.

 

“TO HELL WITH YOU AND YOUR CHURCH TOO!”  Adams made one last grab at the Alex’s shoulder but was swatted away by Martha.  She looked murderously at him as they left, leaving a trail of small sapphires.

 

Laurens fumed watching the proceedings.  “You are the biggest jackass alive, Thomas Jefferson!  You know that?!  The should rot in hell!”

 

“I’m going to have to say again, we are in a House of God and this couple is getting marr-” 

 

But the priest was pushed aside, along with Cody who looked near tears herself, as Laurens grabbed the lapels of Thomas’s coat and shook him violently.  “Did you enjoy fucking around with his feelings?!  Did you do it for a joke?!  An experiment?!  To prove a point about fairytales?!  Why in God’s fucking name did you hurt Alex?!”

 

“Alex?”  It was the first time Thomas had spoken through the whole proceeding.  His voice sounded thick and slow, like he was coming out of sleep.  “Alex?  Where is Alex?  I want to talk to him...I have to tell him...I should have told him...I…”  

  
Thomas Jefferson blinked.  He blinked again.  He looked around.  He shook his head.  His eyes were suddenly alert and alight with fire.  “Wait,” he seemed become aware of his surroundings, “the hell are we doing in a church?   **Where’s Alex** ?!”


	18. The Spell is Lifted

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember to leave a comment here or at my tumblr (red-shadow-wolf-19)

It was like hitting cold air after a hot bath.  It was shocking; all the fog that had circled his head was gone.  He had been floating in a sea of half whispers and forgotten lullabies to be shaken awake to find himself in a church.  Adams was in the aisle looking red faced, shocked, and more out of composure than Thomas had ever seen him.  John Laurens was holding the front of his coat, his face slowly going from fury to disbelief.  

 

“I repeat, what the hell is going on?!” he shouted, pushing the apprentice off of him.

 

“We’re in a church,” a man, presumably from his dress the Pastor, said meekly walking near to the young scientist.  He looked frazzled and nearly as confused as Thomas felt.  Nearly.

 

“Why are we in a fucking church?!” Thomas brushed the man aside, who seemed to be fighting a losing battle.

 

“You wedding, you jackass!” Laurens shouted.

 

“Wedding?!” Now he really was lost.  “Who am I getting married to?!”

 

“HER!” Laurens waved a hand to woman behind him.  

 

He looked her over.  She looked ready to collapse in tears.  “Why would I marry someone I have never met?”

 

“Never met?!” It was Adams’s  turn to shout.  “You all but laid out a map and genealogy tree yesterday, tell us how the Shucks and Jeffersons are old friends and lived together and promises your father made to her father-”

 

“The nearest family to my family were the Lees and my father never made promises.  He made deals.”  

 

“So the last two days you said you were ‘reconnecting’ and planning your marriage-”

 

“TWO DAYS?!” Jefferson cried, swaying on the spot.  “The last thing I remember is walking along the beach.  It was night and I had just brought Alex back...I heard someone calling for help.  I went to see who it was and then…” He shook his head.  It was like an out of body experience.  Thomas could see himself running over to the helpless figure on the beach, calling for help.  He could see himself stoop in the darkness to inspect the person, trying not frighten or offend.  And then…the fog.  A dense warm and seductive fog had surrounded him.  He had tried desperately to find his way out, to call out for help, but the fog had only blanketed him more. 

 

The young scientist looked around the church.  “Two days?  I’ve been…”

 

“A complete ass for two days, yes.” Adams said, recovering his usual serious masterful expression.  “We will have to do an examination to make sure whatever affected your brain is not permanent, but I think we should make our way back to the Washingtons.  You have a lot of apologizing to do.  Especially to Alex.”

 

“Alex?” Thomas’s heart went cold he stopped short of leaving the altar.  His mind conjured up the image of the last time he had seen the mermaid, smiling and dreamy eyed.  The small innocent kiss on the cheek was burnt into his skin like a tattoo.  “I hurt Alex?”

 

Laurens grabbed the taller man’s shoulder and led him up the aisle.  “Oh boy, did you ever.  He ran here to stop the wedding, and that priest,” he waved a hand at the confused holy man, “and that ‘bride’ of yours completely shut that down.  And you didn’t say anything.  If we are being honest, I think if this didn’t turn out to be you having brain damage or something, I would have killed you.  Just the look on his face…”

 

There was a feeling of nausea that came over him.  “I need to talk to him.  I have to tell him something.”

 

“Yeah!  Sorry!”

 

“No I mean,” Jefferson looked around at Adams who had joined them outside of the church.  His eyes were alight with the same sort of defiant he had shown the night he and Alex had walked up to the tower hand in hand.  “I have to tell him something important.  He needs to hear that no matter what happened or will happen or what others say-”

 

“PLEASE SIR DON’T GO!”  It was the Shuck woman, running out of the church, reaching out to grab the back of Thomas’s coat.

 

He shook her off.  “Unhand me!  You took advantage of an injured man for your own gains-”

 

“PLEASE SIR!” Cody kept crying, tears and running down her cheeks.  “You have to forgive me!  I just thought you would remember me!  She said you would remember!  Ma warned me, but I wanted... Oh I wanted you to remember!”

 

“We’ve never met!” Jefferson cried, anger making his face go red.

 

“In the nursery, you must remember in the nursery,” the girl said meekly.  The tears seemed to pour down her face.  Her face seemed to be almost dissolving with all the tears.  No.  Her face  **was** dissolving.  Her body seemed to melt into like ice becoming water in the sun.  

 

The men jumped back in horror, as the water of her person began to seep into the ground and collect at their feet.

 

Her voice was just as watery as limbs.  “Ma told me not leave the nursery, but after we danced I wanted to be with you again.  I didn’t want to trick you.  I didn’t want to hurt the mermaid.  But the witch promised.  She promised you would love.  She said...she lied...I should have known.  Because of the story, but I wanted to believe.  I wanted to be happy…”

 

“Mermaid?!” Thomas stepped closer to what was left of what had been his ‘bride’.  “Story!  Witch?!  I don’t understand…how do you know..”

 

A watery humorless chuckle.  “ _ Have they ever told you about the girl who wished for the ocean?  How she traded her heart away for it?  How the Spirit called her heartless, already?” _  And then what was left of Cody dissolved and fell to their feet; dried beach grass, two brown shore pebbles, and a dead baby ray with a pink faded ribbon tied around it amongst scattered mermaid tears. 

 

There was a beat of silence until finally,  _ “THE HELL IS GOING ON?!” _

 

George stood blocking entry into the tower, his arms crossed glaring at Thomas who was looking desperately past him.  Martha stood behind her husband, a broom in hand as though she could sweep all three of the men outside away. 

 

“I need to see Alex!” Thomas said, still not looking at the couple trying to step around them.  

 

They pushed him away.  “I think you have done enough for one lifetime!  Go to your brid-”

 

“He really does need to see Alex!  That woman...that think...it magicked him!  It was just a baby ray and there’s a witch in the ocean and it melted and...,” Laurens looked to Adams for help.  There was no other way to describe what they had seen.  There was no way to accurately describe what they had seen. __

 

Adams looked up at George, who was looking at his apprentice like he had grown a second head.  “Trust me when I say, that did happen.  Thomas needs to speak to Alex.  It seems some trickery has been afoot.”

 

“Please!  Let me talk to him!  I didn’t mean...I never wanted...I…,” The young man looked up at the older slightly taller man, his swimming in that universal emotion that all of creation can recognize.  The Washingtons nodded and stepped aside.  

 

Thomas ran in, barely noticing Franklin who was packing up some things from their cots.  He ran to the basement door and flung it open, taking the stairs two at time.

 

There was the gentle sound of steady  _ plop plop _ and  _ ping ping _ .  He didn’t need to Alex to stand up from his kneeling position over the pool to know he was crying.  The scientist stepped forward, his heartbreaking at seeing the mermaid so distraught and knowing he was the cause.

 

“Alex?”

 

The mermaid looked around, obviously startled.  He looked nervous, as though he expected Thomas to strike him.  He wiped opals and garnets out his eyes.

 

Thomas waked over to the pool and knelt beside the young boy, cursing whatever magic that had started this at the way the other shrunk away from him.  “Alex, the night of party, Adams sent me to walk and think.  To think about our relationship.  I had only walked for five minutes before I realized that no matter what, no matter our differences of opinion or species, that I had been searching my entire life for someone like you.  And that while I was so....happy that you had legs so I could enjoy your company on land, missed your voice.  And that I would miss every part of you, human or otherwise, if and when we had to leave.  And that I could never leave, knowing you were here.  Because I love you, Alexander.”

 

Alex was staring at him, his eyes shining with more tears.  He crept forward hopefully before stopping, a look of suspicion.  The question obvious.

 

“I know it sounds hard to believe how I hurt.  And I will spend the rest of my days trying to find a way to make you forgive me, but for right now, know that wasn’t me.  It was some sort of spell- what  _ is  _ **_that_ ** ?”

 

Alex turned to follow what had caught Thomas’s attention.  He paled.  Spreading slowly through the water was a dark cloud, that fanned out in all directions of the pool.  The mermaid tried to push Thomas away from the pool, his mouth silently screaming one word over and over again.  But instead, the scientist watched as out of the dark inky cloud two tentacles rose and slipped out of the water like snakes from posing to strike.

 

The mermaid continued to pantomime scream, pushing the other man, his body wracked with sobs. 

 

The tentacles came drew closer, wrapping around first the mermaid’s ankles first.  With each inch it coiled around the Alex a rasping noise came from his mouth.  It was only until the other tendril had wrapped around his own ankle that Alex’s voice fully returned to him.

 

“ **RUN** !” 

 

But it was too late; they both were being dragged beneath the water.


	19. The Contract

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember you can comment here or go to my tumblr (red-shadow-wolf-19)
> 
> Warning: Blood and Torture

Down and down they went, both holding their breath as they were pulled violently along.  The tentacles took no care to their speed or if their charges banged into one another.  During one such moment of being thrust together, Alex and Thomas grabbed ahold of each other’s hands.  

 

They finally reached the cave, materializing before their eyes, the usual faded pink fabric missing a thin ribbon shaped strip.  Thomas and Alex were losing oxygen fast, their vision becoming black around the edges.  Was it lack of oxygen that made Thomas imagine a woman staring at him, reaching out for him with an elegant hand.  He was just about to lose consciousness when suddenly there was a neon pink light surrounded him and oxygen entered his lungs.  He took a breath.  Then another.  

 

“A gift,” the woman said, her voice dripping with venom.  She turned to the other boy, still struggling but becoming slower as the seconds without oxygen ticked by.  The woman gave out a satisfied smile and lifted her hand.  The same neon pink light came over Alex, obscuring him from view.  When it disappeared, the mermaid was once more a mermaid, with not a trace of the human clothes he had once worn.

 

As Alexander took in several gulps of seawater, even the gill slits at his waist wide and twitching, the woman slithered over to him.  It was only then that Thomas saw what was below the woman’s waist; eight large black tentacles of an octopus.  Thomas tried to scream but one of those large tendrils wrapped around his head and covered his mouth.  His cry was muffled, but it seemed Alex was familiar with this ‘person’.

 

“Alex!  Silly little thing!  What did I tell you?  Humans lie to you and cause you so much pain,” the woman's voice was a mocking sort of sweet as ran a hand down the mermaid’s cheek.  “He hurt you,  **SO** much.  Don’t worry.  I can fix that.”

 

Alexander struggled, “Angelica, Ma’am, please!  You said I had a wee-”

 

Angelica chuckled darkly.  “Stupid stupid boy!  I could hear your heart breaking from down here.  I saw what  _ he _ did.  Didn’t I tell you that would happen?  You sweet idiotic thing, do you want to keep experiencing that pain?”  She stroked the boy’s bare chest.

 

“But he came back!  He said he loved me.” Alex smiled hopefully, his eyes looking away from the eight tentacled creature to Thomas who was still watching the scene in terror.  But once the chocolate pools met the scientist’s cinnamon one’s, he felt his heart fluttered.  “And I love him.”  He nodded only to have the tentacle around his head squeeze harder.

 

“I wonder why a human would want to comfort a crying mermaid,” she wiped her finger down the young man’s cheek, holding up a small gem.  “He wanted to give his new bride a gift, and what better way than to collect from silly little thing like you.”  She laughed as Thomas shook his head and fought in her grasp.  “I could kill him now, and everything would be over.”

 

“DON’T!”  There was a cry, and Hamilton had broken free.  He shot like a bullet from a gun to Thomas.  He reached him and held the taller man in his arms, resting his head on the other’s chest.  “I lo-”

 

The words were cut short by another violent light, this time emerald, surrounding him.  The human watched in grotesque fascination as the shape of the one he loved changed.  The slender arms seemed to melt away, the beautiful bottom jaw became oversized, and the green and copper scaled tail faded into a dull flat snake like body.  Alex’s hair was seemingly falling away and his eyes were becoming dull, blank, and unseeing.  Like that of…

 

“I do apologize you were part of this little ‘lesson’, but you understand.  We do what we must,” Angelica explained, almost conversationally.  Three eels came from the darkness of the cavern and began to circle her in monotonous circles, their eyes dead as they spun.  “I just need one more you see.  It’s stupid, and it would be so much easier to get a human like you, but am I going to wait another century for you lot to develop the technology to find me?!  I’m a very busy woman, Mr. Jefferson.  And I have plans.”

 

The tentacle that was around Thomas’s head released him just as Alex gave an earsplitting shriek.  He tried to reach into the light to grab hold of the mermaid, but was pulled away by the tendril still around his leg. 

 

“Oh no, Jefferson, Alex and I had a deal.  A heart for a heart, and you well you didn’t deliver.”

 

“‘A heart for a heart?’  ‘Deal?’”  Thomas’s felt a sickening feeling settle in his chest.  “What did you do?  What is happening?!”

 

Angelica laughed.  “Do you know how one gets power in this world?  True power?  The power of the Almighty?”  Her voice was low like she was telling a secret.  “You have to be willing to trade something of value.  I traded so much to gain just the power of storm, to see the possible futures, to change my appearance at will, and when it came time to ask for my ultimate price...apparently it wasn’t good enough.  So I decided to try to gain it some other way.  It takes so much effort to break a curse.  All I needed was four hearts, willingly given...

 

“The first one was easy!  There were once mermaids a plenty in these waters.  And they would all come flocking to me asking for a little spell here or there.  And I helped them!  Yes I did.  The first was so wonderful to watch when I tricked her.  She asked, they always ask, to see the surface.  Do you think you were the first human to fall in love with a mermaid!”  The sea witch gave out a hearty bark of laughter, “And I sent her.  And once I had gotten her husband to beat her nearly to death, she crawled back to me begging for the pain to end.”  There was a soft scarlet shimmer around one of the eels and Thomas caught the soulful gasp of a forgotten melody echo in the cave.  

 

“Mermaids still came to the cave after that, but not like before.  I was the last resort.  The final alternative.  But still, I was able to get two more out of the bargain before they fled completely.  This one wanting to fell in love with soldiers wife during a time of war.  His face when I had her tell him that she would was going to return to her husband!  It was hysterical.  This one fell in love with a prince.  Defended him up and down.  I made his little prince go mad.”  The two other eels glowed, violet and a soft white respectfully.

 

“You took their hearts?”  Thomas felt a cold chill running up the back of his spine, but he had to keep the witch talking.  He had to find a solution.  Alexander was caught somewhere between an eel and humanoid shape, his features horrifically distorted. 

 

“I’ve been Alex’s only companion since he was ten!  I had given up hope of ever seeing another mermaid darken my cave entrance, so I hoped I could sink a vessel of sailors to get what I needed.  I had been sending hurricanes at random for so long.  Years and years.  And then one day, this little idiot swims to my cave.  Scared alone, so unsure and with so many questions, looking for his mother.”  Angelica looked almost admiringly at the ‘mermaid’.  “And he had never heard of me!  Unfortunately he did not understand what it means to give his heart.  So I needed a way make him truly want to give it all away!  And then you came along.”

 

“And you enchanted me to break his heart?”

 

“Nothing personal.  If it is any consolation, you were the hardest human I’ve ever had to enchant.  You kept waking up from the spell that first night, asking for him.  I can only do so much down here, and I did fear I would have to do something more drastic.  I had seven days to work with per the contract.”

 

_ ‘Seven days.’   _ Thomas’s eyes widened.  ‘ _ The first day they had gone into town.  Second day was the party. Third day Thomas had been enchanted.  The fourth day he had still been enchanted, but he had apparently made an appearance with ‘his bride’.  Today was… _

 

“Today is the fifth day!  Alex still has time!  Like he said, he has time!” Thomas shouted, paddling over the woman.  

 

She smiled sweetly.  “The damage is done, you fool!  Words are not enough.  Words are wind.  I said some pretty words to my sisters before I gave them over.  ‘It won’t hurt!  It will be quick.  I would never harm your child.’  And here we are.  Love isn’t some pretty word to be thrown out.  Love isn’t a kiss.  Love is something else, and in my eyes, you have not proven-”

 

**_“FINE!  THEN TAKE ME HEART INSTEAD!”_ **

 

The entire cave seemed to become silent and still.  The eels stopped their drone-like circles.  Alex’s body seemed to stop twisting and changing shape.  

 

Angelica’s eyes were wide.  “W-what?”

 

“Take my heart instead.  Let Alex go!  All you need is heart willingly given, and I am willing to give up mine for Alex’s.  Let him go.  Let him swim away.  Let him live in peace.  Let him live to be a hundred.  Let him find another human or mermaid or god whatever the hell you are, that will love him and make him happy.  Let him spare a thought for me on days he thinks about something as silly as taxes, or tobacco, or museums.  Let him remember I danced with him once.  That I debated with him once.  Let him debate with someone else and know that I wish was there.  Holding his hands.  Let him remember the stars.  Please...if I can spend my last moment knowing Alex has just an inkling of a chance of leaving and thinking of me, you can have do whatever the hell you want with me.”

 

“Y-you would be willing to give up...your heart for…”

 

“Yes.  Without any regret.”

 

There was a beat.  Another beat.  The sea witch put her hand over her chest.  Another beat.   **A SCREAM** .

 

“ **YOU FOOL!  YOU WRETCH!  YOU TRICKSTER!  IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN MINE I WAS SO CLOSE!  FATHER!  ELIZABETH! MARGRET!  PHILLIP!  I JUST WANTED…”** With each word, blood was poured out of Angelica’s chest.  A hole had appeared there, empty where one would expect a heart.  Blood poured from the wound and eels seemed to dance and relish in it.

 

The cavern was collapsing.  Thomas swam to the fading emerald light, and the now reformed Alex.  He stopped.  The spell that had been giving him oxygen had ended as well and he clutched at his throat.  The salt water stung his eyes.  Through the pain and lack of air though he felt two small but strong arms grab him and pull him from the cavern.  He heard the rush of water in his ears as they sped up, up, up and..

 

They broke the surface, Thomas gasping for air and Alex panting.  The mermaid pushed them to shore, weakly.  The human helped a little, but legs are not best when it comes to swimming.

 

When they reached the rocky coast, they pulled themselves onto beach and collapsed into the surf.  The two looked at one another.

 

“Was it true?  Were you willing to give your heart for me?”  Alex asked, his voice small.

 

“I still would.”

 

“Even if I’m not…”

 

“I don’t care.”

 

“That’s good.”

 

The two shot up at the voice.  Or the chorus of voices.  They looked down to their feet, and tail, to see three other mermaids, one woman and two men,  made from sea foam staring up at them in the surf.  As they spoke the foam traveled up Alex’s tail and covered him below the waist.

 

The woman spoke, her voice husky even as she melted into the sea in puddle of scarlet.  “The Spirit of the Sea rewards love and selflessness.  And she gives without need of payment or tricks.”

 

“But,” the one of the men warned, his head without hair and his scales as they melted a shade of patient violet, “you will not always have your gift.  Three months out of the year, you must return to the sea.”  

 

“You must tell your story,” the last mermaid’s voice was high, and desperate as he too became one with the sea, “of how love save you, like it nearly doomed us.  Let our voices be heard.”

 

The multi-colored foamed was swept away with the tide, and with it foam that covered Alex.  He and Thomas gasped.

 

“At least this time,” Thomas said, after he had composed himself, though he was still smiling broadly, “you have your voice.”

 

Alex let out the loudest and most beautiful laugh the scientist had ever heard before kissing the taller man, his brand new legs entangling themselves with his companion’s.


	20. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would like to thank you for reading and wish you a Happy Holidays, no matter what you are celebrating/celebrated. I have yet to think of another fic, but if you have suggestions or want to bounce ideas or just want to ask a question feel free to contact me on my tumblr (red-shadow-wolf-19)

_ Five Years Later _

 

_ Have they ever told you the story about the human who traded his heart for a mermaid? _

 

They had found that right after his three month ‘vacations’, Alex was particularly insatiable.  His legs still wobbly, his lungs still adjusting to air he would be scooped up into Thomas’s welcoming arms and carried from the pool back to their bedroom upstairs.  The first time, Thomas had been self-conscious of others present and of how Alex shamelessly kissed him.  Now, his mind was only filled with reconnecting with his lover.

 

And connected they were.  Thomas thrust into the small man beneath him, admiring how tight he was, the way his lithe legs wrapped around him drawing him even closer and further inside.  And then there was the moans and groans!  With each snap of the hip from the older man, Alex would let out a litany of noises that worth their weight in gold.

 

“Fuck, Alexander!  I need to…”

 

“Please!  Together!”

 

Two more thrusts and two more pleas, and then they came with a shout and loud moan.  Thomas panted into Alex’s slim shoulder as the mermaid kissed his broad muscular one.

 

“I missed you,” the scientist said breathlessly,  bringing himself up to look into Alex’s soft brown eyes.

 

“I missed you too,” the younger man replied.  They stayed like that for a time, just breathing in each other's now familiar scents and letting the afterglow surround them.  Finally, with a small chuckle, Alex said, “I’m actually pretty hungry.”

 

Thomas laughed, rolling to his side of the bed.  “I thought you would have eaten before you came back!”

 

“I did, but swimming and sex are two very physical activities!  I need to replenish my calories!”

 

“You’ve been listening to Abigail Adams again.  When we go back to the city, remind me to make sure you two don’t see one another much.”

 

“That’s mean!”

 

“That’s to protect my sanity!” But it was said in jest, and Thomas leaned over and kissed the pouting lips he loved so much.  “I’ll get dressed and start dinner for everyone.  And you can take a bath and get ready yourself.”  He grabbed his shirt, vest, and trousers from where he had deposited them an hour or so before.  As he slipped on his pants he looked back to the bed where Alex still smiled lazily.  He grinned back.  “Remember, pants and shirt.  I don’t think anyone would care, but we do Franklin may have one of his new students come by and well...you know humans.”

 

They both laughed at their mutual joke as Thomas threw on his shirt and left the room to walk downstairs.  The  **HAMILTON BAY MERMAID FIELD OBSERVATION CENTER** had been built to be as homey as possible, while still being a place of research.  The full time staff was small (funding was no longer issue, it was still extremely limited) and inexperienced (the field of Marine Anthropology was so new that people were still debating the name).  They lived a stone’s throw from the center, the honor of living in the actual building was restricted to the three (well four) pioneers of the new science when they in the field.

 

The main area of the center was divided into four quadrants that were overlapped by center square.  Two of the quadrants were more for the research aspect of the facility; the medical bay, that tried a little too hard to look friendly, and a small office area where notes were compiled, copied, and filed.  The other two quadrants were homey additions, suggested by both Franklin and Alex: a dining area, complete with kitchen, and small parlor area where one could light a stove and keep warm on the days when the coastal breezes got too much.  And in the center of it all was an inland square that opened out onto the ocean and an observation deck.  It also served as a mermaid entrance.

 

Three such mermaids were watching in rapt attention as Adams looked into the ears of a fourth, sitting on the edge of the observation deck.  “As I suspected,” he was saying, taking a pair of tweezers and gently pulling a large wad of green from the young mermaid’s ear, “just some seaweed.  You’ve been playing on the far side of the reef haven’t you, Philip?”

 

Philip blushed and nodded, obviously embarrassed at being caught.  His three friends giggled.

 

“We’ve had several sharks sightings over that way, and until I can get your hunters to see about th-”

 

“I’m a hunter!” Philip protested.  He caught sight of Jefferson coming down the stairs.  “Mr. Thomas, tell him I am hunter!”

 

“Philip is training to be a hunter, John.”

 

The mermaid looked betrayed.   His friends laughed, one falling back into the water as the hunter to be chased them back under the waves and out into the ocean.

 

Adams laughed and stepped out of the observation deck area.  “I do love field work.  It’s like having young children again.  That aren’t yours and sleep somewhere else.”  

 

“I know why Little Philip is all eager to prove himself as a hunter,” Franklin said from the parlor area, smoking his pipe in contentment.  “It’s getting close to spawning season.  They’re all a twitter and ready to...well do as nature does.”

 

The smaller scientist smirked at Thomas as walked to the kitchen.  “Did you and Alexander, do as nature does?”

 

“What does nature do?” asked Alex, walking from downstairs his hair still mildly wet from his wash.

 

The taller man waved it way.  “We were talking about Philip and him trying to impress someone by becoming a hunter.  He’s been going to the far side of the reef, trying to get a shark.”

 

“He’s not going to get a shark!” A gail of laughter.  “He’s going their teeth!  For Mr. Eacker and his shark analysis.”

 

“What?!  Why?!” Franklin looked mildly scandalized.

 

Alex met Thomas’s eye and smiled.  The question was dropped.

 

“So when are you two leaving for the city university again?” Adams asked sitting down at the dining table and picking up the discarded newspaper he had been reading when his ‘patients’ had arrived.  “If you are leaving with me, you will have to wait a month.  I was promised by the local school leader help with setting up communication cross the channel.”

 

“You should join me on the lecture circuit once again!” the oldest scientist said, patting his small rotund belly fondly.  “The life of the traveling scholar is at times a lonely on, and it would be nice to have some company.”

 

“Actually, I was thinking of heading back to the city as soon as possible.  I have lessons and lectures to plan myself.  And James Monroe is there-”

  
  


The mermaid’s head swung up immediately.  “James Monroe?  The guy who is proposing the bill to exclude people owning property from the country inland transport tax?”

 

Thomas shook his head as he laid out some cold meats, cheeses, nuts, bread, and butter for the four of them to eat.  “It’s not a ‘people who don’t own property don’t pay tax’, it’s a ‘people who have lot of acreage of farmland get a break on paying for doing their livelihood’.”

 

“They get to not pay their god damn taxes while complaining that there isn’t enough people to defend the roads that we all paid for and all use!”

 

“I’m still shocked you enjoy taxes after paying them!  And save your passion for when you meet him.  He’s joining the economic department, and I can’t wait until he gets to meet my very opinionated assistant.”

 

“I thought I was your partner!”

 

“That too.  I was also thinking of going to the opera. The university is finally getting a decent troupe of actors.  That is to say, Lafayette finally got his big break and we’ve been invited.”

 

“I’ve never been to an opera!” Alex said brightly.  Just as brightly adding as he took a slice of bread, “What’s an opera?”

 

Thomas Jefferson just sat beside his beloved, and kissed his cheek.  “I’ll show you.  If you’re ready?”

 

“Ready.”

 

_ I'll tell you a tale of the bottomless blue/And it's hey to the starboard, heave ho/Look out, lad, a mermaid be waiting for you/In mysterious fathoms below/From whence wayward Westerlies blow/Where Triton is king and his merpeople sing/In mysterious fathoms below _

 

_ They Lived Happily Ever After _


End file.
